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[Courage] arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength . . .

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
Arises
Arise
Measure
Courage
Strength
Consciousness
Great

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The Gauls derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell.
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Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.
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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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All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
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In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.
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[The] discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny . . .
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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 principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
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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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In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the dexterity or labour of their hands, are commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and, in that sense, the most respectable part of the community.
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Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.
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It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
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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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According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman.
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A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume the character of justice his profusion, of liberality his obstinacy, of firmness.
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Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism.
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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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I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
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While the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with transport in every part of the empire, except in the palace of Constantius.
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Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.
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