01c. 1765 ADThe reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
04c. 1765 ADIn every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
06c. 1765 ADThe winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
07c. 1765 ADVicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
10c. 1765 ADOn the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
12c. 1765 ADConversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
13c. 1765 ADHistory is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
14c. 1765 ADThe pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little circumstances.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
15c. 1765 ADThe unfortunate are loud and loquacious in their complaints, but real happiness is content with its own silent enjoyment.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
16c. 1765 ADThe winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
17c. 1765 ADWhenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
18c. 1765 ADHistory is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
19c. 1765 ADAgriculture is the foundation of manufactures, since the productions of nature are the materials of art.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
20c. 1765 ADAn outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
21c. 1765 ADIf we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
22c. 1765 ADIf I may speak of myself (the only person of whom I can speak with certainty), my happy hours have far exceeded, and far exceed, the scanty numbers of the caliph of Spain; and I shall not scruple to add that many of them are due to the pleasing labor of the present composition.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
23c. 1765 ADAs long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
24c. 1765 ADOur lives are songs; God writes the words, And we set them to music at leisure: And the song is sad, or the song is glad As we choose to fashion the measure. We must write the song, Whatever the words, Whatever its rhyme, or meter; And if it is sad, we must make it glad, And if sweet, we must make it sweeter.Edward Gibbon / quote ↗
