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
men assault
But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature . . .
mind mercy monk
[The monks'] minds were inaccessible to reason or mercy . . .
philosophy light mind
[The monks'] credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind: they corrupted the evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science.
years crowns poverty
I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." - I forget the consequences of his vow of chastity.
real race age
We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race.
firsts care reformers
It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation.
exercise choices style
The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.
humanity feelings emotion
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
religion atheism might
The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion.
discipline soldier patient
The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life.
character years two
Both Moscow and [Kiev], the modern and the ancient capitals, were reduced to ashes [by the Tartars]; a temporary ruin, less fatal than the deep, and perhaps indelible, mark, which a servitude of two hundred years has imprinted on the character of the Russians.
art war government
Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.
long empires inquiring
[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.
revenge guilty
The revenge of a guilty woman is implacable.