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
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
The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of… — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
History should be to the political economist a wellspring of experience and wisdom. — Edward Gibbon Copy Share Image
[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man. — 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
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
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
A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he… — 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
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
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
![“[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f89/edward-gibbon-710_destroyed_instead-of-inquiring-why-the-roman-empir_626622.jpg)
![“[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.” quote by Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/841/edward-gibbon-710_belief_we-should-suspend-our-belief-of-every-ta_1033720.jpg)
![“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)
