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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.

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
Mind
Perhaps
Ruins
Events
Event
Example
Total
Age
Popular
Paganism
History
Considered
Singular
May
Ancient
Superstition
Human
Deserve
Superstitions
Humans
Therefore
Ruin

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[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.
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The authority of Plato and Aristotle, of Zeno and Epicurus, still reigned in the schools and their systems, transmitted with blind deference from one generation of disciples to another, precluded every generous attempt to exercise the powers, or enlarge the limits, of the human mind.
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Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals . . .
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This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.
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The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy.
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The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.
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But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burdens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord.
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Active valour may often be the present of nature but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.
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[All] the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks.
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Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his policy or passion and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage.
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History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution.
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The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents . . .
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But the human character, however it may be exalted or depressed by a temporary enthusiasm, will return by degrees to its proper and natural level, and will resume those passions that seem the most adapted to its present condition.
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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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Language is the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind.
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I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
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Freedom is the first wish of our heart freedom is the first blessing of nature and unless we bind ourselves with voluntary chains of interest or passion, we advance in freedom as we advance in years
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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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Style is the image of character.
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The author himself is the best judge of his own performance none has so deeply meditated on the subject none is so sincerely interested in the event.
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