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The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede.

Edward Gibbon

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Edward Gibbon
Age: 56 †
Born: 1737
Born: May 8
Died: 1794
Died: January 16
Classical Scholar
Historian
Politician
Writer
Gibbon
Mathematics
Particular
Recede
Courses
Epic
Course
Distinguished
Age
Advance
May
Ages
Always
Math
Never
Privilege

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War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.
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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.
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[The] vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.
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The love of freedom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire of impunity.
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But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest.
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[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.
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The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.
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History has scarcely deigned to notice [Libius Severus's] birth, his elevation, his character, or his death.
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[The] events by which the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave a faint impression on the page of history, and the patience of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities [between Rome and Persia], undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and terminated without effect.
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While the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with transport in every part of the empire, except in the palace of Constantius.
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Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
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A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim.
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Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.
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In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.
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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.
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Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
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If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.
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[Every age], however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood and military renown.
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The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.
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The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians.
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