Edward Gibbon Quotes

My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the decent obscurity of a learned language.
Edward Gibbon

Learned, Language, Left

Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.
Edward Gibbon

Government, Present, Seems

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
Edward Gibbon

Sympathy, Cold, Misery

Style is the image of character.
Edward Gibbon

Character, Style, Image

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.
Edward Gibbon

Best, Judge, Himself

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

True, General, Laws

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

Almost, Pathetic, Events

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

Power, Lost, Free

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.
Edward Gibbon

True, Useful, False

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

Freedom, Poverty, Since

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

Learning, Book, Thinking

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

Win, Ourselves, Improve

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Biography

Nationality: English

Type: Historian

Born: April 27, 1737

Died: January 16, 1794

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Cite this Page: Citation

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