It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable. — 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
We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited the… — 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 triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet without… — 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
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
Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Instead of pressing, with the foremost of the crowd, into the palace of Constantinople, Libanius calmly expected his arrival at Antioch; withdrew… — 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 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
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
In the most rigorous [Roman] laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of… — 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
![“In the most rigorous [Roman] laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f58/edward-gibbon-710_cases_in-the-most-rigorous-roman-laws-a-wife-w_2829227.jpg)
![“That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws; and every step of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory of savage man over civilized society.” 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 Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.” 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 the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.” 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)
