Edward Gibbon Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the decent obscurity of a learned language.”

“The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.”

“Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.”