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Edward Gibbon Biography

Edward Gibbon FRS (/ˈɡɪbən/; 8 May 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English historian, writer and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788 and is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organised religion.

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Edward Gibbon Quotes

[Whole] generations may be swept away by the madness of kings in the space of a single hour.

Generations, Hour, Kings, Single, Space

But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor can it reasonably be presumed that the restoration of British freedom was exempt from tumult and faction. The pre-eminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently violated by bold and popular citizens; and the haughty nobles, who complained that they were become the subjects of their own servants, would sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary monarch.

Advantages, Arbitrary, Escaping, History, Perpetual, Regret

In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.

Courage, Ends, Freedom, Security

The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy.

Enemy, Ideas, Separation, Stranger

But how shall we excuse the supine inattention of the Pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were presented by the hand of Omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses? During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, daemons were expelled, and the laws of Nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church.

Law, Omnipotence, Hands, Evidences, Laws, Frequently

The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of vice and error from every province of the empire; the eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new occupation to the busy idleness of the metropolis: and we may credit the assertion of an intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects of their loquacious zeal.

Assertion, Christian, Controversy, Intelligent, Observer, Religious

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.

Awful, Christian, Eye, History, Worship

If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.

Cottages, Erroneous, Humanity, Life, Ruin, Sorrow

Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.

Anticipation, Comfort, Hope, Imperfect

There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest.

Country, Hold, Inclination, Nations, Obedience, Reason

The manly pride of the Romans, content with substantial power, had left to the vanity of the East the forms and ceremonies of ostentatious greatness. But when they lost even the semblance of those virtues which were derived from their ancient freedom, the simplicity of Roman manners was insensibly corrupted by the stately affectation of the courts of Asia.

Asia, Forms, Greatness, Manners, Pride, Vanity

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.

Bishops, Empires, History, Ignominious, Part, Under

In the productions of the mind, as in those of the soil, the gifts of nature are excelled by industry and skill. . .

Excelled, Gifts, Mind, Nature, Skills, Soil

It is impossible to reduce, or, at least, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants.

Country, Distant, Effort, Inhabitants, Reduce, Wish

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates who reigned in the capital of the East was rejected in the purer schools of Rome and Alexandria.

Princes, Principal, Purer, Rome, School, Years

[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.

Character, Deviates, Law, Men, Nature, Tale

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.

Age, Event, Events, Extirpation, Mind, Superstition

Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate. . .

Communicate, Ideas, Recluse, Sentiments

I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince. " - I forget the consequences of his vow of chastity.

Abbot, Crowns, Given, Read, Sovereign, Years

The love of spectacles was the taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians: the most skilful artists were procured form the adjacent cities; a considerable share of the revenue was devoted to the public amusements; and the magnificence of the games of the theatre and circus was considered as the happiness, and as the glory, of Antioch.

Artist, Considerable, Devoted, Games, Glory, Passion

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