The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured form the adjacent… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Although the progress of civilisation has undoubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have been less… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented by the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The most successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to which he was entitled by the superiority either of merit… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The emperor of the East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elder brother, whose death happened towards… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it is now grown… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Yet the arts of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state reason. He promised only to betray; he… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native country; but they are embarked… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In less than seven years the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the city appeared to resume its former… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
His manners were less pure, but his character was equally amiable with that of his father. Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame.… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The love of liberty was the ruling passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it, their best treasure; the word that expressed… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchymy; and the present age, however desirous of riches,… — 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
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