[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
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
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
These idle disputants overlooked the invariable laws of nature, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valour. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for [Augustus] to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
“These overtures of peace, translated into the servile and flattering language of Asia, were transmitted to the camp of the Great King;… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
If we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery [gunpowder] with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
As long as the same passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war and peace, of justice and policy, which… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The peace of the Eastern church was invaded by a swarm of fanatics [monks], incapable of fear, or reason, or humanity; and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
To maintain the harmony of authority and obedience, to chastise the proud, to protect the weak, to reward the deserving, to banish… — 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
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
The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved the peace by a… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[Peace] cannot be honorable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war. — 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