The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper… — 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
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
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
The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters; and the use of letters is the principal… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Feeble and timid minds . . . consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence. — 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
It is seldom that minds long exercised in business have formed any habits of conversing with themselves, and in the loss of… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit… — 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 primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events — 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
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The nations, and the sects, of the Roman world, admitted with equal credulity, and similar abhorrence, the reality of that infernal art… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[The monks'] credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind: they corrupted the evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill . . . — 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
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
So long as mankind shall continue to lavish more praise upon its destroyers than upon its benefactors war shall remain the chief… — 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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