In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the… — 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
A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry;… — 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
But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle, and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study,… — 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
Fashion was the only law, pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendour of dress and furniture was the only distinction of the… — 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
In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
In their censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial; and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation,… — 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 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
If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminent and virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order would… — 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… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was successfully practised; honours, gifts, and immunities were offered and accepted as the price… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
It was with the utmost difficulty that ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals; but the primitive church was filled… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, with an… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
But in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants;… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
On the slightest touch the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Philosophy, with the aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchymy; and the present age, however desirous of riches,… — 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
Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to… — 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
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
The mixture of Sarmatic and German blood had contributed to improve the features of the Alani, to whiten their swarthy complexions, and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with… — 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
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
To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured form the adjacent… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by… — 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
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
![“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)
