Edward Gibbon Quotes - Page 3

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• There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest.

  Edward Gibbon

  Country, Reason, Obedience

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (François, M.), William Smith (1871). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.425

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• The difference of language, dress, and manners . . . severs and alienates the nations of the globe.

  Edward Gibbon

  Differences, Dresses, Language

  Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Crusades: A.D. 1095-1261”, p.81

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• And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

  Edward Gibbon

  Inspirational, Life, Wisdom

  "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Volume 6,

  103 Copy quote

• A bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a single day, the work of ages.

  Edward Gibbon

  Loss, Men, Victory

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.1695, Delphi Classics

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• In the field of controversy I always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the fire of both sides.

  Edward Gibbon

  Party, Fire, Fields

  Edward Gibbon, J. B. Bury (2013). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Edited in Seven Volumes with Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Index”, p.257, Cambridge University Press

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• The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.

  Edward Gibbon

  Rome, Europe, Curiosity

  Edward Gibbon (1840). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”

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• Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

  Edward Gibbon

  Freedom, Desire, Liberty

  Edward Gibbon (1839). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.127

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• A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.

  Edward Gibbon

  Money, Abuse, Democracy

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.567, Wordsworth Editions

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• The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Believe, Mind

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.264, Wordsworth Editions

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• In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valour. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury.

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Powerful, Luxury

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.3, Wordsworth Editions

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• Women [in ancient Rome] were condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex created to please and obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reason and experience. Such, at least, was the stern and haughty spirit of the ancient law . . .

  Edward Gibbon

  Sex, Husband, Law

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (François, M.), William Smith (1871). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.61

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• Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

  Edward Gibbon

  Inspirational, Motivational, Business

  26 Copy quote

• Religion is a mere question of geography.

  Edward Gibbon

  Geography, Mere

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• Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.

  Edward Gibbon

  Two, Giving, Important

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• It was the fashion of the times to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the human mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish, according to the colour of their respective prejudices, that the establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake, or that a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress of sin and error.

  Edward Gibbon

  Fashion, Earthquakes, Errors

  Edward Gibbon (2016). “THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages”, p.1209, e-artnow

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• 'I believe in o­ne God and Mohammed the Apostle of God,' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.

  Edward Gibbon

  Gratitude, Believe, Simple

  Edward Gibbon, Francis Parkman, William H. Prescott, Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812”, p.1340, Modern Library

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• Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire.

  Edward Gibbon

  Country, Powerful, History

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.37, Wordsworth Editions

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• Under a democratical government the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude.

  Edward Gibbon

  Exercise, Government, History

  Edward Gibbon (1840). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.32

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• Yet the arts of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state reason. He promised only to betray; he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.

  Edward Gibbon

  Art, History, Might

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.100, Wordsworth Editions

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• But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest.

  Edward Gibbon

  Dexterity, Authority, Interest

  Edward Gibbon (2016). “The Collected Works of Edward Gibbon: Historical Works, Autobiographical Writings and Private Letters, Including The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.1156, e-artnow

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• The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion . . .

  Edward Gibbon

  War, Hero, Blood

  Edward Gibbon, Francis Parkman, William H. Prescott, Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812”, p.1712, Modern Library

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• It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.

  Edward Gibbon

  Fall, Writing, Rome

  Memoirs of My Life ch. 6 (1796)

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• Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.

  Edward Gibbon

  Fate, Unhappy, Might

  Edward Gibbon, William George Smith (1857). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.75

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• The active, insatiate principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of life and the wages of industry; and as soon as civil government and exclusive property have been introduced, they become necessary to the existence of the human race.

  Edward Gibbon

  Art, Race, Government

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.2063, Delphi Classics

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• In the most rigorous [Roman] laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, Hands, Wife

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (M., François), Sir William Smith (1862). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.298

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