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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.

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
Suffering
Eloquence
Invaded
History
Mention
Legion
Reserves
Romans
Acts
Exercised
Compassion
Barbarians
Arms
Provinces
Concisely
Successful
Sufferings
Coolly
Justice
Reserve
Legions

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Style is the image of character.
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To a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.
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War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.
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If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.
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Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people, imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy.
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Religion is a mere question of geography.
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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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Rational confidence [is] the just result of knowledge and experience.
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It was among the ruins of the capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised nearly twenty years of my life.
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The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured form the adjacent cities a considerable share of the revenue was devoted to the public amusements and the magnificence of the games of the theatre and circus was considered as the happiness, and as the glory, of Antioch.
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It is seldom that minds long exercised in business have formed any habits of conversing with themselves, and in the loss of power they principally regret the want of occupation.
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The union of the Roman empire was dissolved its genius was humbled in the dust and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.
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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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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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The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede.
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[The] vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.
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The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved the peace by a constant preparation for war.
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[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.
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But a wild democracy . . . too often disdains the essential principles of justice.
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