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To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.

Edward Gibbon

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Edward Gibbon
Age: 56 †
Born: 1737
Born: May 8
Died: 1794
Died: January 16
Classical Scholar
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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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A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.
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The peace of the Eastern church was invaded by a swarm of fanatics [monks], incapable of fear, or reason, or humanity and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame, that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest Barbarians.
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Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.
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Religion is a mere question of geography.
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The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.
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The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, with an affected secrecy, which served to excite their wonder and curiosity.
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War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.
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It was here that I suspended my religious inquiries (aged 17).
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In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.
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Genius may anticipate the season of maturity but in the education of a people, as in that of an individual, memory must be exercised, before the powers of reason and fancy can be expanded: nor may the artist hope to equal or surpass, till he has learned to imitate, the works of his predecessors.
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The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition.
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The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.
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It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation.
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On the slightest touch the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished for ever.
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The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent.
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A bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a single day, the work of ages.
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[It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.
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Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements.
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[The] noblest of [Arabs] united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise.
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