436 Quotes by Edward Gibbon

I must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time, and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.

My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India.

Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.

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

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.

Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.

If the empire had been afflicted by any recent calamity, by a plague, a famine, or an unsuccessful war; if the Tiber had, or if the Nile had not, risen beyond its banks; if the earth had shaken, or if the temperate order of the seasons had been interrupted, the superstitious Pagans were convinced that the crimes and the impiety of the Christians, who were spared by the excessive lenity of the government, had at length provoked the divine justice.

These overtures of peace, translated into the servile and flattering language of Asia, were transmitted to the camp of the Great King; who resolved to signify, by an ambassador, the terms which he was inclined to grant to the suppliant Romans.

War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.