Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length…

In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the dexterity or…

— Edward Gibbon

But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an…

— Edward Gibbon

The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his…

— Edward Gibbon

Antoninus diffused order and tranquility over the greatest part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few…

— Edward Gibbon

If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince…

— Edward Gibbon

The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the character of Theodosius…

— Edward Gibbon

An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour…

— Edward Gibbon

Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was successfully practised; honours, gifts, and immunities were offered and accepted as the price of an…

— Edward Gibbon

The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably…

— 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

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

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

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

— 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

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