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
law inspire vices
[The] operation of the wisest laws is imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot always restrain vice.
philosophy giving greek
Greek is a musical and prolific language, that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philosophy.
heart passion blessing
Freedom is the first wish of our heart; freedom is the first blessing of nature; and unless we bind ourselves with voluntary chains of interest or passion, we advance in freedom as we advance in years
geography mere
Religion is a mere question of geography.
art men perfect
Greek is doubtless the most perfect [language] that has been contrived by the art of man.
tribes principles language
Language is the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind.
hands luxury poverty
[The Goths'] poverty was incurable; since the most liberal donatives were soon dissipated in wasteful luxury, and the most fertile estates became barren in their hands.
animal dominion toil
Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals . . .
country reason obedience
There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest.
people dangerous provoking
[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.
school rome years
Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates who reigned in the capital of the East was rejected in the purer schools of Rome and Alexandria.
law sovereign authority
[It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.
law people necks
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.
son years eight
The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the empire of the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one thousand and fifty-eight years in a state of premature and perpetual decay.