Quotes from Edward Gibbon

Decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder.

As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of exalted characters.

I was never less alone than when by myself.

Their united reigns [the Antonines'] are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government.

[On the possibility of an Arab victory at Poitiers:] Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.

My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.

The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.

We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

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.

The five marks of the Roman decaying culture: Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth; Obsession with sex and perversions of sex; Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original; Widening disparity between very rich and very poor; Increased demand to live off the state.

Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.

I make it a point never to argue with people for whose opinion I have no respect.

My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India.

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.

Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.

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.

War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.

To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.