Quotes from Edward Gibbon

The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language . . .

A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

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.

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive

History has scarcely deigned to notice [Libius Severus's] birth, his elevation, his character, or his death.

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.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.

The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, with an affected secrecy, which served to excite their wonder and curiosity.

The sentiment of fear is nearly allied to that of hatred.

Fear has been the original parent of superstition, every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of invisible enemies

Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.

In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.

Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.