[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. The superstition of the people was not embittered theological rancor. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people, imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilised people to an improved country. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people [of Armorica], was incompatible either with freedom or servitude. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
It was [Totila's] constant theme, that national vice and ruin are inseparably connected; that victory is the fruit of moral as well… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A Locrian, who proposed any new law, stood forth in the assembly of the people with a cord round his neck, and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
A people who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations: he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The two Antonines (for it is of them that we are now speaking) governed the Roman world forty-two years, with the same… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Metellus Numidicus, the censor, acknowledged to the Roman people, in a public oration, that had kind nature allowed us to exist without… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Genius may anticipate the season of maturity; but in the education of a people, as in that of an individual, memory must… — 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
The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the… — 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
The character of the tribunes was, in every respect, different from that of the consuls. The appearance of the former was modest… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
One must search diligently to find laudatory comments on education (other than those pious platitudes which are fodder for commencement speeches). It… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the productions of nature are the materials of art. Under the Roman empire, the labour… — 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
The barbarians of Germany had felt, and still dreaded, the arms of the young Caesar; his soldiers were the companions of his… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would… — 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
The aspiring efforts of genius, or virtue, either in active or speculative life, are measured, not so much by their real elevation,… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to… — 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
![“[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ceb/edward-gibbon-710_dangerous_arabs-are-a-people-whom-it-is-dangerous_1122919.jpg)
![“The vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people [of Armorica], was incompatible either with freedom or servitude.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2a2/edward-gibbon-710_disposition_the-vain-inconstant-rebellious-dispositi_3225156.jpg)
![“It was [Totila's] constant theme, that national vice and ruin are inseparably connected; that victory is the fruit of moral as well as military virtue; and that the prince, and even the people, are responsible for the crimes which they neglect to punish.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/212/edward-gibbon-710_connected_it-was-totila-s-constant-theme-that-nati_2666395.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)
