Top 250 Edward Gibbon Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “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

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 ambassadors had encamped on the edge of a large morass.”

— Edward Gibbon

204. “The attack of a man, equipped with erudition, and of perfectly sober judgment, on cherished beliefs and revered institutions, must always excite the interest, by irritating the passions, of men.”

— Edward Gibbon

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

— Edward Gibbon

206. “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

207. “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

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

— Edward Gibbon

209. “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

210. “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

211. “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

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

— Edward Gibbon

213. “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

214. “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

215. “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

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

— 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. “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

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

— Edward Gibbon

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

— Edward Gibbon

221. “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

222. “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

223. “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

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

— Edward Gibbon

225. “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

226. “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

227. “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

228. “Bigotry and national aversion are powerful magnifiers of every object of dispute;.”

— Edward Gibbon

229. “In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention.”

— Edward Gibbon

230. “I was a student of the civil law; but my soul was inflamed with the love of letters;.”

— Edward Gibbon

231. “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

232. “But the obedience of the Roman world was uniform, voluntary, and permanent.”

— Edward Gibbon

233. “Baldwin, was awakened by the sound; but the most pressing danger could not prompt him to draw his sword in the defence of a city which he deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret: he fled from the palace to the seashore, where he descried the welcome sails of the fleet returning from the vain and fruitless attempt on Daphnusia.”

— Edward Gibbon

234. “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

235. “Within a period of about thirty years, Claudius, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian and his colleagues, triumphed over the foreign and domestic enemies of the state, reestablished, with the military discipline, the strength of the frontiers, and deserved the glorious title of Restorers of the Roman world.”

— Edward Gibbon

236. “That public virtue, which among the ancients was denominated patriotism, is derived from a strong sense of our own interest in the preservation and prosperity of the free government of which we are members.”

— Edward Gibbon

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

— Edward Gibbon

238. “The temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity and enriched its splendor.”

— Edward Gibbon

239. “It is an obvious truth, that the times must be suited to extraordinary characters, and that the genius of Cromwell or Retz might now expire in obscurity.”

— Edward Gibbon

240. “They now contain the residence of a German prince, who styles himself Emperor of the Romans, and form the centre, as well as strength, of the Austrian power.”

— Edward Gibbon

241. “Egypt, the fruitful parent of superstition, afforded the first example of the monastic life.”

— Edward Gibbon

242. “The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune.”

— Edward Gibbon

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

— Edward Gibbon

244. “A perpetual stream of strangers and provincials flowed into the capacious bosom of Rome. Whatever was strange or odious, whoever was guilty or suspected, might hope, in the obscurity of that immense capital, to elude the vigilance of the law. In such a various conflux of nations, every teacher, either of truth or of falsehood, every founder, whether of a virtuous or a criminal association, might easily multiply his disciples or accomplices.”

— Edward Gibbon

245. “It was the aim of the one to disguise, and the object of the other to display, the unbounded power which the emperors possessed over the Roman world.”

— Edward Gibbon

246. “My son deems himself a great and heroic prince; but, alas! our miserable age does not afford scope for heroism or greatness. His daring spirit might have suited the happier times of our ancestors; but the present state requires not an emperor, but a cautious steward of the last relics of our fortunes.”

— Edward Gibbon

247. “It was from the success, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that they expected the honors of a triumph.”

— Edward Gibbon

248. “They soon experienced, that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.”

— Edward Gibbon

249. “The authority of the prince,” said Artaxerxes, “must be defended by a military force; that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agriculture can never flourish except under the protection of justice and moderation.”

— Edward Gibbon

250. “Their reputation and their language encouraged them, however, to despise the ignorance and to overlook the progress of the Latins. 93 In the love of the arts, the national difference was still more obvious and real; the Greeks preserved with reverence the works of their ancestors, which they could not imitate;.”

— Edward Gibbon