In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
“If the empire had been afflicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tiber… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But this inestimable privilege was soon violated: with the knowledge of truth the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The slightest force, when it is applied to assist and guide the natural descent of its object, operates with irresistible weight; and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
“it is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the the inferior ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
“A generous intercourse of charity united the most distant provinces, and the smaller congregations were cheerfully assisted by the alms of their… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
“The public highways, which had been constructed for the use of the legions, opened an easy passage for the Christians missionaries from… — 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