Words matter. These are the best Edward Gibbon Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
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.
Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.
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.
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.
Style is the image of character.
In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.
Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.
Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.
I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
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.
Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.
