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[All] the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks.

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
Servile
Monks
Manly
Monk
Reign
Oppressed
Virtues
Virtue
Pusillanimous

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But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature . . .
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The Romans, who so coolly and so concisely mention the acts of justice which were exercised by the legions, reserve their compassion and their eloquence for their own sufferings, when the provinces were invaded and desolated by the arms of the successful Barbarians.
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In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.
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The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion . . .
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History should be to the political economist a wellspring of experience and wisdom.
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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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In the field of controversy I always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the fire of both sides.
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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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The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent.
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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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The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition.
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It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation.
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