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Language is the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind.

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
Principle
Mankind
Principles
Language
Unites
Separates
Tribes
Leading

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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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The love of freedom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire of impunity.
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Rational confidence [is] the just result of knowledge and experience.
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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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Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.
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Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
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History should be to the political economist a wellspring of experience and wisdom.
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Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals . . .
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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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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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As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.
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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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Europe is secure from any future irruptions of Barbarians since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous.
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Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
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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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Yet the civilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen to dispose of his life . . .
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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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The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.
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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 fortune of nations has often depended on accidents . . .
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