1737-1794, British Historian
A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.
Edward Gibbon – [Action]
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
Edward Gibbon – [Growth]
Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
Edward Gibbon – [Beauty]
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.
Edward Gibbon – [Books and Reading]
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
Edward Gibbon – [Liberty]
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
Edward Gibbon – [Fanatics and Fanaticism]
History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.
Edward Gibbon – [History and Historians]
I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
Edward Gibbon – [Economy and Economics]
I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.
Edward Gibbon – [Duty]
I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.
Edward Gibbon – [Infatuation]
I was never less alone than when by myself.
Edward Gibbon – [Loneliness]
It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.
Edward Gibbon – [Writers and Writing]
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
Edward Gibbon – [Books and Reading]
My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.
Edward Gibbon – [Obscenity]
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
Edward Gibbon – [Disasters]
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Edward Gibbon – [Gratitude]
Style is the image of character.
Edward Gibbon – [Style]
The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.
Edward Gibbon – [Critics and Criticism]
The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.
Edward Gibbon – [Army and Navy]
The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
Edward Gibbon – [Law and Lawyers]