But in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants;… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved… — 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 spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured form the adjacent… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
It is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The comparative view of the powers of the magistrates, in two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of… — 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 virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The German huts, open on every side to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity than… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict which… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Philosophy had instructed Julian to compare the advantages of action and retirement; but the elevation of his birth and the accidents of… — 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 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
Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the… — 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
The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry;… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[The] events by which the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave a faint impression on the page of history, and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A small number of temples was protected by the fears, the venality, the taste, or the prudence of the civil and ecclesiastical… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the… — 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
Antoninus diffused order and tranquility over the greatest part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who… — 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… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Yet the people, and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational judgment of the business of peace and war, presumed to… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
At the hour of midnight the Salerian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from… — 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
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
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
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
[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share
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
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
It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share
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
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
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
[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
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 Copy Share
![“[The] events by which the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave a faint impression on the page of history, and the patience of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities [between Rome and Persia], undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and…” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/228/edward-gibbon-710_causes_the-events-by-which-the-fate-of-nations_826775.jpg)
