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Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements.

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
Much
Convulsions
Men
Passions
Fellow
Fellows
Elements
Creatures
Passion
Fear

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War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.
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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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I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
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The most distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus.
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Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
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It is impossible to reduce, or, at least, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants.
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Metellus Numidicus, the censor, acknowledged to the Roman people, in a public oration, that had kind nature allowed us to exist without the help of women, we should be delivered from a very troublesome companion and he could recommend matrimony only as the sacrifice of private pleasure to public duty.
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Language is the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind.
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The love of study, a passion which derives fresh vigor from enjoyment, supplies each day, each hour, with a perpetual source of independent and rational pleasure.
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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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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 most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.
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Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
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To a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.
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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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In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill . . .
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Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.
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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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It was with the utmost difficulty that ancient Rome could support the institution of six vestals but the primitive church was filled with a great number of persons of either sex who had devoted themselves to the profession of perpetual chastity.
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A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.
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