436 Quotes by Edward Gibbon

History has scarcely deigned to notice [Libius Severus's] birth, his elevation, his character, or his death.

These idle disputants overlooked the invariable laws of nature, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valour.

It has been sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn prejudices of his countrymen.

Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for [Augustus] to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking became every day more difficult, the event more doubtful, and the possession more precarious and less beneficial.

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.

[The] discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny . . .

The pains and pleasures of the body, howsoever important to ourselves, are an indelicate subject of conversation

The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.

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