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Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Edward Gibbon Quotes

Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.

– Edward Gibbon

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

– Edward Gibbon

Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.

– Edward Gibbon

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

– Edward Gibbon

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.

– Edward Gibbon

My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.

– Edward Gibbon

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

– Edward Gibbon

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

– Edward Gibbon

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

– Edward Gibbon

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

– Edward Gibbon

The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

– Edward Gibbon

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

– Edward Gibbon

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

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

– Edward Gibbon

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.

– Edward Gibbon

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

– Edward Gibbon

I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.

– Edward Gibbon

History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

– Edward Gibbon

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

– Edward Gibbon

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

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

– Edward Gibbon

I was never less alone than when by myself.

– Edward Gibbon

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

– Edward Gibbon

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

– Edward Gibbon

But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

– Edward Gibbon

Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

– Edward Gibbon