Edward Gibbon

“Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.”

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

“Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.”

“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 a...”

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

“The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.”

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

“The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.”

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

“Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.”

“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.”