Edward Gibbon quotes

And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. (Edward Gibbon)
We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win. View quote
Edward Gibbon
History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. View quote
Edward Gibbon
My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty. View quote
Edward Gibbon
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. View quote
Edward Gibbon
I make it a point never to argue with people for whose opinion I have no respect. View quote
Edward Gibbon
The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. View quote
Edward Gibbon
I was never less alone than when by myself. (Edward Gibbon)
Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. View quote
Edward Gibbon
A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute. View quote
Edward Gibbon
The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Amiable weaknesses of human nature. View quote
Edward Gibbon
... vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave. View quote
Edward Gibbon
On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure. View quote
Edward Gibbon
I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son. (Edward Gibbon)
It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefoot 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. View quote
Edward Gibbon
It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State, without becoming soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness. View quote
Edward Gibbon
Our work is the presentation of our capabilities. View quote
Edward Gibbon
The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. View quote
Edward Gibbon