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There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times.

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
Strong
Advantages
Nature
Evils
Human
Exists
Humans
Advantage
Present
Times
Depreciate
Evil
Magnify
History
Propensity

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The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.
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The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single family, might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human manners but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader.
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Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.
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bizarreness masqueraded as creativity.
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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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On the approach of spring, I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.
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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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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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Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.
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The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition and may therefore deserve to be considered, as a singular event in the history of the human mind.
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Imam Hussain's sacrifice is for all groups and communities, an example of the path of rightousness.
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In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.
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Greek is a musical and prolific language, that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philosophy.
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The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
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A Locrian, who proposed any new law, stood forth in the assembly of the people with a cord round his neck, and if the law was rejected, the innovator was instantly strangled.
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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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To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligation and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College: they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life.
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A philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest.
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[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.
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