Gibbon, Edward
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Gibbon, Edward
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
Gibbon, Edward
Books - Reading
I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.
Gibbon, Edward
Duty
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.
Gibbon, Edward
Books - Reading
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.
Gibbon, Edward
Critics and Criticism
The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.
Gibbon, Edward
Detail
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
Gibbon, Edward
Disasters
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
Gibbon, Edward
Fanatics and Fanaticism
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Gibbon, Edward
Gratitude
History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.
Gibbon, Edward
History and Historians
The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
Gibbon, Edward
Law and Lawyers
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
Gibbon, Edward
Growth
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved-to write a book.
Gibbon, Edward
Learning
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
Gibbon, Edward
Liberty
I was never less alone than when by myself.
Gibbon, Edward
Loneliness
I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.
Gibbon, Edward
Infatuation
My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.
Gibbon, Edward
Obscenity
We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.
Gibbon, Edward
Self-control
Style is the image of character.
Gibbon, Edward
Style
The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.
Gibbon, Edward
Public
The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.
Gibbon, Edward
Army and Navy
I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
Gibbon, Edward
Economy and Economics
Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
Gibbon, Edward
Beauty
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
Gibbon, Edward
Ability
Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.
Gibbon, Edward
Autobiography
A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.
Gibbon, Edward
Action
The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.
Gibbon, Edward
Writers and Writing
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.
Gibbon, Edward
Writers and Writing