“The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“The five marks of the Roman decaying culture:
1. Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth;
2. Obsession with sex and perversions of sex;
3. Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original;
4. Widening disparity between very rich and very poor;
5. Increased demand to live off the state.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“I make it a point never to argue with people for whose opinion I have no respect.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. ”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“The history of empires is the history of human misery.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“It was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline that good soldier should dread his own officers far more than the enemy”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
“The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.”
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"The Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"Our work is the presentation of our capabilities."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"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."
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language…"
— Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)