Quotes by Edward Gibbon

“... but I must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time, and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.”

“War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.”

“Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.”

“Edward Gibbon, in his classic work on the fall of the Roman Empire, describes the Roman era's declension as a place where "bizarreness masqueraded as creativity.”

“Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.”

“My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India.”

“Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.”

“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.”

“Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.”

“The obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state, in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished, is entrusted with the execution of the laws, the management o...”

“Under a democratical government, the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude.”

“If the empire had been afflicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tiber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the earth had shaken, or...”

“The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers, habituat...”

“The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.”

“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.”

“Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.”

“History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”

“The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.”

“Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.”

“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 s...”