Quotes from Edward Gibbon

The discipline of a soldier is formed by exercise rather than by study; the talents of a commander are appropriated to those calm though rapid minds, which nature produces to decide the fate of armies and nations: the former is the habit of a life, the latter the glance of a moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may be numbered with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism.

In the second century of the Christian Aera

the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth

In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention.

But the obedience of the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and permanent.

The temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity and enriched its splendor.

If in the neighborhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow a race of cannibals really existed, we may contemplate in the period of the Scottish history the opposite extremes of savage and civilised life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce in some future age the Hume of the Southern Hemisphere.

Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, l. ii. c. 16. The oration of Agrippa, or rather of the historian, is a fine picture of the Roman empire.]

The great work of Gibbon is indispensable to the student of history. The literature of Europe offers no substitute for "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

It is an obvious truth, that the times must be suited to extraordinary characters, and that the genius of Cromwell or Retz might now expire in obscurity.

His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

Unsere Einschätzung des persönlichen Verdienstes richtet sich nach dem Durchschnittsmenschen. Die überragenden Leistungen eines Genies oder einer Tugend, sei es im tätigen oder im kontemplativen Leben, werden nicht nach ihrem absoluten Kulminationspunkt bemessen, sondern nach der Höhe, die sie über dem Durchschnitt ihres Jahrhunderts oder ihres Landes erreichen.

Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of the monastic life.

Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death: the rapid mischief may be kindled and propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind;

The youth of Andronicus had been without spirit, his age was without reverence:

A Locrian who proposed any new law stood forth in the assembly of the people with a cord round his neck, and if the law was rejected, the innovator was instantly strangled.

A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious, whoever was guilty or suspected, might hope, in the obscurity of that immense capital, to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or of falsehood, every founder, whether of a virtuous or a criminal association, might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices.

The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune.

Freedom is the first step to curiosity and knowledge. -V6

It was from the success, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that they expected the honors of a triumph.

subdue the wild beast, which, according to the lively metaphor of Aristotle, [48] seldom fails to ascend the throne of a despot.

Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean: The world has grown grey from thy breath!

treason against such a prince might easily be considered as patriotism to the state.

Philip was brave, but the statesman predominated in his character; he was soon weary of sacrificing his health and interest on a barren coast: