In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the…

That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws;…

— Edward Gibbon

The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of…

— Edward Gibbon

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

— Edward Gibbon

[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.

— Edward Gibbon

Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each…

— Edward Gibbon

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates…

— Edward Gibbon

It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable.

— Edward Gibbon

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was…

— Edward Gibbon

If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West:…

— Edward Gibbon

But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor…

— Edward Gibbon

[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.

— Edward Gibbon

The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of Heaven while they are employed in measuring…

— Edward Gibbon

The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.

— Edward Gibbon

From the paths of blood (and such is the history of nations) I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science…

— Edward Gibbon

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed…

— Edward Gibbon