Edward Gibbon

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. ”

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. ”