436 Quotes by Edward Gibbon

Such, indeed, is the policy of civil war: severely to remember injuries, and to forget the most important services. Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

The dark cloud, which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, and finally dispelled by the arms of Caesar, again settled on the shores of the Atlantic, and a Roman province [Britain] was again lost among the fabulous Islands of the Ocean.

Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals . . .

I darted a contemptuous look at the stately models of superstition.

The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood . . .

The most distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus.

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.

[The] noblest of [Arabs] united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise.

[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.