Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Edward Gibbon (English Historian)

Edward Gibbon (1737–94) was an English rationalist historian, politician, bibliophile, and man of letters. He was the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88,) which is generally regarded as a monumental work of literature as well as historical analysis.

Born in Putney, Surrey, he was educated at Westminster and Magdalen College-Oxford.

On a visit to Rome in 1764, he decided to write The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6 vol., 1776–88,) the work for which he continues to be best known. Acclaimed as literature as well as history, it narrates the continuity of the Roman Empire from the age of the Roman soldier Trajan in the 2nd century CE to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Although its chapters provoked controversy for their critical account of the spread of Christianity, the conquests of Islam, and the Crusades, it is still read for its clarity, accuracy, and brilliant style.

Gibbon entered Parliament in 1774 and served as commissioner of trade and plantations. After 1788, he spent much of the remainder of his life with John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield, who published Gibbon’s Miscellaneous Works (1796.)

A bibliophile, Gibbon termed his 7,000 volume-library “the foundation of my works, and the best comfort of my life.”

Gibbon’s Autobiography (1896,) a classic of the genre, includes a discussion of his return to Protestantism and his forbidden love for Suzanne Curchod. She subsequently became the French-Swiss salonist Madame Necker, the mother of Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, a French woman of letters and historian.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Edward Gibbon

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Revenge, Gratitude

A false modesty is the meanest species of pride.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Modesty

History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Historians, History

If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Sorrow

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Arguments, Opinions

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.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Critics, Criticism

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
Topics: Writers, Writing, Authors & 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.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Writing, Authors & Writing, Writers

The first of earthly blessings, independence.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: One liners, Independence

Style is the image of character.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Style, Character

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to what our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Reading

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Ignorance, Learning

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
—Edward Gibbon

I was never less alone than when by myself.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Loneliness

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Fanaticism

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Progress, Kindness, Growth

The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as equally false, and by the magistrate as equally useful.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Religion

From this slender beginning I have gradually formed a numerous and select library, the foundation of all my works, and the best comfort of my life, both at home and abroad.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Libraries

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 English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Profanity, Swearing, Vulgarity

We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Control, Self-Control, Victory

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Navy, The Military, Army

If I may speak of myself, 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 composing my history.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Happiness

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Lawyers, Law

I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Duty

Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Liberty

In old age the consolation of hope is reserved for the tenderness of parents, who commence a new life in their children, the faith of enthusiasts, who sing hallelujahs above the clouds; and the vanity of authors, who presume the immortality of their name and writings.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Hope

Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Books, Reading

Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.
—Edward Gibbon
Topics: Autobiography, Legacy

Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures, since the productions of nature are the materials of art.
—Edward Gibbon

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