The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance; and posterity will confess that the character… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for [Augustus] to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was reserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The dark cloud, which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, and finally dispelled by the arms of Caesar, again settled on… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies form the only balance capable… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The barbarians of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of the young Caesar; his soldiers were the companions of his… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[The] noblest of [Arabs] united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State, without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
“When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that isn't mortal or decisive can be productive only of a… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved the peace by a… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[A] military force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image