Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon FRS was an English historian, writer and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788 and is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organized religion...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth27 April 1737
race vanity desire
A philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest.
law practice safety
[The] penalty of death was abolished in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety.
thank-you wisdom gratitude
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
religious reflection people
The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.
mind painful indolence
To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.
war justice humanity
War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.
voice history hatred
The voice of history is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery.
writing air castles
There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.
friendship happiness sex
I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.
money wish income
I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
power principles constitution
The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
taken recovery pride
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.
law safety justice
The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.
fall rome christianity
In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome.