Quotes by Edward Gibbon

“My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India.””

“The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.””

“Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.””

“All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.””

“Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.””

“Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.””

“The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. 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. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.””

“To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.””

“War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.””

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

“The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.””

“Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.””