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 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
A philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of its own power:… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and… — 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
In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A state of skepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence,… — 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 active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of spare horses,… — 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
The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their… — 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
The revolution of ages may bring round the same calamities; but ages may revolve without producing a Tacitus to describe them. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The Indian who fells the tree that he may gather the fruit, and the Arab who plunders the caravans of commerce are… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In their censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial; and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
To resume, in a few words, the system of the Imperial government, as it was instituted by Augustus, and maintained by those… — 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
Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Yet the experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes, and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height the… — 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
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
![“That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of…” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/70c/edward-gibbon-710_barbarism_that-country-carthage-was-rapidly-sinkin_393.jpg)
![“[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and…” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/338/edward-gibbon-710_byzantine_in-the-national-and-religious-conflict-o_29382.jpg)
![“[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of…” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/4de/edward-gibbon-710_delay_every-hour-of-delay-abates-the-fame-and_94668.jpg)
