That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and… — 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… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
At that time the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was filled by Theophilus, the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue; a bold, bad… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of ten thousand… — 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
[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Boethius might have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the last term of the life of… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The land was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature . . . — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption.… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[But] the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property, has lost in society… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
So natural to man is the practice of violence that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the most disputable right, as a… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Greek is doubtless the most perfect [language] that has been contrived by the art of man. — 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 chaste severity of the fathers in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes flowed from the same principle --… — 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