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.
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The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent.
Edward GibbonMots clés economics-philosophy
Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.
Edward GibbonThe ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of its own power: but the possession of a throne could never yet afford a lasting satisfaction to an ambitious mind.
Edward GibbonThe uncommon abilities and fortune of Severus have induced an elegant historian to compare him with the first and greatest of the Cæsars. The parallel is, at least, imperfect. Where shall we find, in the character of Severus, the commanding superiority of the soul, the generous clemency, and the various genius, which could reconcile and unite the love of pleasure, the thirst of knowledge, and the fire of ambition? ⁴⁴
⁴⁴ Though it is not, most assuredly, the intention of Lucan to exalt the character of Cæsar, yet the idea he gives of that hero, in the tenth book of the Pharsalia, where he describes him, at the same time making love to Cleopatra, sustaining a siege against the power of Egypt, and conversing with the sages of the country, is, in reality, the noblest panegyric.
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.
Edward GibbonI must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time, and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.
Edward GibbonMots clés time loss hope ageing
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 Gibbonلو العرب استولوا على فرنسا، إذن لصارت باريس مثل قرطبة في إسبانيا، مركزا للحضارة والعلم؛ حيث كان رجل الشارع فيها يكتب ويقرأ بل ويقرض الشعر احيانا، في الوقت الذي كان فيه ملوك أوروبا لا يعرفون كتابة أسمائهم
Edward GibbonRevenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
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