Top 200 Edward Gibbon Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “A jurisdiction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse: the substance, as well as the form, of justice were often sacrificed to the prejudices of virtue, the bias of laudable affection, and the grosser seductions of interest or resentment.”

— Edward Gibbon

202. “In everyage and country, the wiser, or at least the stronger, ofthetwosexes, hasusurped thepowers ofthe state, and confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life.”

— Edward Gibbon

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

— Edward Gibbon

204. “It is seldom that minds long exercised in business have formed any habits of conversing with themselves, and in the loss of power they principally regret the want of occupation.”

— Edward Gibbon

205. “I shall not, I trust, be accused of superstition; but I must remark that, even in this world, the natural order of events will sometimes afford the strong appearances of moral retribution.”

— Edward Gibbon

206. “In the more remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The east was in the immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the west was inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown.”

— Edward Gibbon

207. “The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life.”

— Edward Gibbon

208. “The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion.”

— Edward Gibbon

209. “The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the barbarians. Many are the resources of courage and poverty.”

— Edward Gibbon

210. “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.”

— Edward Gibbon

211. “The sentiment of fear is nearly allied to that of hatred.”

— Edward Gibbon

212. “On the slightest touch the unsupported fabric of their pride and power fell to the ground. The expiring senate displayed a sudden lustre, blazed for a moment, and was extinguished for ever.”

— Edward Gibbon

213. “When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that is not mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms for a new encounter.”

— Edward Gibbon

214. “The active, insatiate principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of life and the wages of industry; and as soon as civil government and exclusive property have been introduced, they become necessary to the existence of the human race.”

— Edward Gibbon

215. “It was no longer esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honor and independence.”

— Edward Gibbon

216. “Though it was every moment in their power to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military employments. They soon experienced, that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.”

— Edward Gibbon

217. “The subject, however various and important, has already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer.”

— Edward Gibbon

218. “A modern Greek, who could write the life of a saint without adding fables and miracles, is entitled to some commendation.”

— Edward Gibbon

219. “The fierce and partial writers of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and the demons.”

— Edward Gibbon

220. “The conflict was terrible; it was the combat of despair against grief and rage.”

— Edward Gibbon

221. “You have lost,” said Saturninus, on the day of his elevation, “you have lost a useful commander, and you have made a very wretched emperor.”

— Edward Gibbon

222. “But the experience of the world, from China to Britain, has exposed the vain attempt of fortifying any extensive tract of country. An active enemy, who can select and vary his points of attack, must, in the end, discover some feeble spot, on some unguarded moment. The strength, as well as the attention, of the defenders is divided; and such are the blind effects of terror on the firmest troops, that a line broken in a single place is almost instantly deserted.”

— Edward Gibbon

223. “The Empire In The Age Of The Antoninies.”

— Edward Gibbon

224. “Regular pay, occasional donatives, and a stated recompense, after the appointed time of service, alleviated the hardships of the military life, whilst, on the other hand, it was impossible for cowardice or disobedience to escape the severest punishment. The centurions were authorized to chastise with blows, the generals had a right to punish with death; and it was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more than the enemy.”

— Edward Gibbon

225. “The favorable omen inspired an assurance of victory; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh vigor; a large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia.”

— Edward Gibbon

226. “If our general wishes to lead us to the banks of the Tyber, we are prepared to trace out his camp. Whatsoever walls he has determined to level with the ground, our hands are ready to work the engines: nor shall we hesitate, should the name of the devoted city be Rome itself.”

— Edward Gibbon

227. “In times of confusion, every active genius finds the place assigned him by nature: in a general state of war, military merit is the road to glory and to greatness.”

— Edward Gibbon

228. “He there experienced that the most absolute power is a weak defence against the effects of despair.”

— Edward Gibbon

229. “Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his inclinations; and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than for ostentation.”

— Edward Gibbon

230. “Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his baldness, assured the ambassadors, that, unless their master acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily render Persia as naked of trees as his own head was destitute of hair.”

— Edward Gibbon

231. “The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor.”

— Edward Gibbon