Edward Gibbon

Quotes

  1. A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated from the banks of the Tiber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works of antiquity.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  2. The silence of flattery is sometimes equal to the most positive and authentic evidence.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  3. The timid are always cruel.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  4. All gates are shut against the unfortunate.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  5. It was probably some ingenious fancy, of comparing the thirty tyrants of Rome with the thirty tyrants of Athens, that induced the writers of the Augustan History to select that celebrated number, which has been gradually received into a popular appellation. But in every light the parallel is idle and defective. What resemblance can we discover between a council of thirty persons, the united oppressors of a single city, and an uncertain list of independent rivals, who rose and fell in irregular succession through the extent of a vast empire? Nor can the number of thirty be completed, unless we include in the account the women and children who were honoured with the Imperial title.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  6. But the genius of Constantine himself had been formed by adversity and experience. In the free intercourse of private life, and amidst the dangers of the court of Galerius, he had learned to command his own passions, to encounter those of his equals, and to depend for his present safety and future greatness on the prudence and firmness of his personal conduct. His destined successors had the misfortune of being born and educated in the Imperial purple. Incessantly surrounded with a train of flatterers, they passed their youth in the enjoyment of luxury and the expectation of a throne...

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  7. Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their valour, and their abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia, India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  8. The paths of error are various and infinite.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  9. [W]henever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  10. This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  11. Those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon

  12. In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

    Book cover: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon