Edward Gibbon

Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.

Edward Gibbon, in his classic work on the fall of the Roman Empire, describes the Roman era's declension as a place where "bizarreness masqueraded as creativity.

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

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

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

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

I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

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.

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

I was never less alone than when by myself.

Unprovided with original learning unformed in the habits of thinking unskilled in the arts of composition I resolved to write a book.