Edward Gibbon

Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their valour, and their abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia, India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has uniformly …

The timid are always cruel.

The silence of flattery is sometimes equal to the most positive and authentic evidence.

If we consult the succeeding writers ... their knowledge will appear gradually to increase as their means of information must have diminished, a circumstance which frequently occurs in historical disquisition.

A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, is seldom qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation.

[T]he progress of despotism ... tends to disappoint its own purpose.

The same timid policy, of dividing whatever is united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expecting that the most feeble will be the most obedient, seems to pervade the institutions of several princes, …

The divided administration, which had been formed by Constantine, relaxed the vigour of the state, while it secured the tranquility of the monarch.

This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager …

[T]he Christians, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.

But these transient persecutions served only to revive the zeal and to restore the discipline of the faithful; and the moments of extraordinary rigour were compensated by much longer intervals of peace and security. The indifference of …

But this splendid exaggeration, which even at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile with the real state of mankind, can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer, the measure of whose belief was …

It was in the school of Alexandria that the Christian theology appears to have assumed a regular and scientifical form.

So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any system of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition.

The paths of error are various and infinite.

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 …

[W]henever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

The incredible speed which Maximin exerted in his flight is much more celebrated than his prowess in the battle.

The ideas of inheritance and succession are so very familiar that the generality of mankind consider them as founded not only in reason but in nature itself.

Like Augustus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire.

The power of opinion is irresistible.

...in the prosecution of a favourite scheme, the best of men, satisfied with the rectitude of their intentions, are subject to forget the bounds of moderation...

Those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.

Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; …