Edward Gibbon

The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

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

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.

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

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

Beauty is an outward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.