Edward Gibbon's Quotes

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.

Style is the image of character.

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.

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.

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.

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.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.

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.

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.