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[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.

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
Dangerous
People
Fruitless
Provoke
Arabs
Provoking
Attack

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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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Since the primitive times, the wealth of the popes was exposed to envy, their powers to opposition, and their persons to violence.
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I darted a contemptuous look at the stately models of superstition.
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But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature . . .
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[The] discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny . . .
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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.
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In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.
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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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