Quote#Love
Poor Burke is the most eloquent and rational madman that I ever knew.…
Quote byEdward Gibbon · 1737–1794
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to Lord Sheffield (31 May 1791), quoted in The Letters of Edward Gibbon: Volume Three 1784–1794, Letters 619–878, ed. J. E. Norton (1956), pp. 229–230.
English (original)
Poor Burke is the most eloquent and rational madman that I ever knew. I love Fox's feelings, but I detest the political principles of the man and of the party. ... Should you admire the National assembly we shall have many an altercation, for I am as high an Aristocrate as Burke himself, and he has truly observed that it is impossible to debate with temper on the subject of that cursed Revolution.
— Edward Gibbon
More from Edward Gibbon
It is the misfortune of controversy, that an error may be committed in three or four words, that cannot be rectified in less than thirty or forty lines.
There are some advocates who would disgrace Christianity, if Christianity could be disgraced, by the manner in which they defend her cause.
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.
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 …
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 …
My readers, if any readers have accompanied me thus far, must be satisfied, and indeed satiated, with the repeated proofs which I have made of the weight and temper of my adversary's weapons. They have, in every assault, fallen dead and …