Edward Gibbon

"Mr. Gibbon may still maintain the character of an historian; but it is difficult to conceive how Mr. Davis will support his pretensions, if he aspires to that of a gentleman."

"Vitellius consumed in mere eating, at least six millions of our money in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with dignity, or even decency."

"There are some advocates who would disgrace Christianity, if Christianity could be disgraced, by the manner in which they defend her cause."

"The writer who aspires to the name of historian, is obliged to consult a variety of original testimonies, each of which, taken separately, is perhaps imperfect and partial. By a judicious reunion and arrangement of these dispersed materials, he endeavours to form a consistent and interesting narrative."

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

"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."

"A weak prince will always be governed by his domestics."

"If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus."

"The true interest of an absolute monarch generally coincides with that of his people. Their numbers, their wealth, their order, and their security, are the best and only foundations of his real greatness; and were he totally devoid of virtue, prudence might supply its place, and would dictate the same rule of conduct."

"His rash ambition had climbed a height where it was difficult to stand with firmness, and impossible to fall without instant destruction."

"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 of age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction."

"I disdain to add a single reflection; nor shall I qualify the conduct of my adversary with any of those harsh epithets, which might be interpreted as the expressions of resentment, though I should be constrained to use them as the only words in the English language which could accurately represent my cool and unprejudiced sentiments."