Edward Gibbon

My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India. ”

It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work. ”

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. ”