Roman Empire Quotes - Page 7

• The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe subordination of rank and office, from the titled slaves who were seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of arbitrary power.

  Edward Gibbon

  History, Office, Thrones

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.325, Modern Library

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• I think it's important to realise that what happens in Neo-Platonism beginning with Plotinus and Porphyry and then going on for the next several centuries, is a real kind of contest for the ideas and convictions of the intelligentsia of the later Roman Empire. So that you have Christians slowly converting more and more powerful people until of course actually Constantine and then other emperors after him, become Christian, and the empire becomes a Christian empire rather than Pagan empire.

  Peter Adamson

  Christian, Powerful, Real

  Source: www.abc.net.au

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• The eastern part of the Roman Empire spoke mostly Greek, and the western parts spoke mostly Latin. So very soon, you begin getting different emphases between the Eastern church and the Western church.

  Justo L. Gonzalez

  Latin, Greek, Church

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• Malcolm Bradbury made the point, and I don't know whether it's a valid one or not, that the real English at the moment is not the English spoken in England or in America or even in Canada or Australia or New Zealand. The real English is the English which is a second language, so that it's rather like Latin in the days of the Roman Empire when people had their own languages, but had Latin in order to communicate.

  William Golding

  Real, Latin, Order

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• I think democracies are prone to inflation because politicians will naturally spend [excessively] - they have the power to print money and will use money to get votes. If you look at inflation under the Roman Empire, with absolute rulers, they had much greater inflation, so we don't set the record. It happens over the long-term under any form of government.

  Charlie Munger

  Thinking, Government, Long

  Charlie Munger's remarks at the 2004 Wesco Annual Meeting in Pasadena, California, www.tilsonfunds.com. May 5, 2004.

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• Curiously, the righteous Pharisees had little historical impact, save for a brief time in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. But Jesus' disciples - an ornery, undependable, and hopelessly flawed group of men - became drunk with the power of a gospel that offered free forgiveness to the worst sinners and traitors. Those men managed to change the world.

  Philip Yancey

  Jesus, Men, Impact

  Philip Yancey (2009). “Grace Notes”, p.95, Harper Collins

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• I'm sure back in the Greek days or the Roman Empire days, when guys fought in arenas and were fighting lions, people were talking smack. Every era in history has someone talking smack. No way you can have talent and not proclaim your victory.

  J. B. Smoove

  Fighting, Talking, People

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• We still haven't gotten the message; we still don't see that it's bad. And then we copy everything about their [Roman Empire] structure. I mean Paul Bremer was the proconsul of Iraq. We're still using ancient terminology, we still have Senators and we have an Emperor, almost.

  Immortal Technique

  Mean, Iraq, Empires

  Source: www.hiphopcanada.com

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• When we look at these types of things it echoes to lessons we haven't learned from the past. We still don't see Rome as a negative thing; we glorify the Roman Empire. It was a fascist state under the control of an incredibly authoritarian militant pre-emptive striking genocidal regime.

  Immortal Technique

  Past, Echoes, Rome

  Source: www.hiphopcanada.com

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• People think that, that conversion to Judaism is just a modern phenomenon. But there was an era in the late Roman Empire Judaism was not a proselytizing religion. It didn't go out looking for converts, but it accepted converts.

  Susan Jacoby

  Thinking, People, Empires

  "'Strange Gods' Chronicles The History Of Secularism And Conversion". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. February 17, 2016.

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• The Roman Empire was fairly tolerant of religious choice as long as you made a point not of thumbing your nose in public at the Roman gods.

  Susan Jacoby

  Religious, Long, Choices

  "'Strange Gods' Chronicles The History Of Secularism And Conversion". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. February 17, 2016.

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• The Roman Catholic Church early on simply adapted the hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire and confused the whole thing. Vertical attention and hierarchy were so entangled, that when the French killed the king during the Revolution, they lost much of their vertical attention too.

  Robert Bly

  Kings, Confused, Catholic

  Source: www.utne.com

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• There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.

  Karl Marx

  Party, Hands, Decay

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.368, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Today, on our own turf, we face pagan ignorance about God every bit as deep as that which the early church faced in the Roman Empire.

  J. I. Packer

  Ignorance, Church, Empires

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• The Romans have provided a lot of writers with a model for various interstellar empires, of course, and no wonder. The Roman Empire is a really good example of a large empire that, in one form or another, functioned for quite a long time over a very large area. And over all that time, there was all sorts of exciting drama - civil wars and assassinations and revolts and bits breaking off and being forced back in ... But I didn't want my future - however fanciful it was - to be entirely European. The Radchaai aren't meant to be Romans in Space.

  Ann Leckie

  War, Drama, Space

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• America is the new Roman Empire. Remember what happened to Rome.

  Eddie Izzard

  Rome, America, Empires

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• Discussing the attempts of Augustus' generals to add to the extent of the Roman Empire early in his reign:
  The northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labour of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune.

  Edward Gibbon

  Country, Yield, Race

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• From my student days I found him a compelling and fascinating, though often puzzling, figure. It's a lifelong fascination now and I don't expect that to stop! His vision of God, God's faithfulness, God's purposes and so on is so much bigger and richer than almost any subsequent Christian thinker has ever managed. In addition, I have always loved ancient history, especially the history of the early Roman empire, and of course Paul fits right into that.

  N. T. Wright

  Christian, Vision, God's Faithfulness

  Source: kenwytsma.com

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• Both the Eurozone and European Union is like the end of the Roman Empire. It's already started. In a few years' time it will not be there anymore. Don't ask me if it will be two years or ten years but the end is near. Like the Roman Empire, it's gone.

  Geert Wilders

  Years, Two, Gone

  Source: www1.cbn.com

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• [The] penalty of death was abolished in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, Practice, Safety

  Edward Gibbon (1821). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.152

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• Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.

  Edward Gibbon

  Government, History, British Monarchy

  Edward Gibbon (1821). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.197

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• [Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.

  Edward Gibbon

  Long, Empires, Inquiring

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

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• For what fortress, what city, in the wide extent of the Roman empire, can hope to exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it should be erased from the earth?

  Attila the Hun

  Cities, Earth, Empires

  "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Book by Edward Gibbon, Vol. III, chapter 34, 1781.

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• In less than seven years the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the city appeared to resume its former splendour and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the storms of war, and was still amused in the last moment of her decay with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion.

  Edward Gibbon

  Revenge, War, Years

  Edward Gibbon (2008). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.338, Cosimo, Inc.

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• If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself.

  John Lennon

  Inspirational, Life, New York

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