The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede.
Edward GibbonThe laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest, and a just apprehension lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the pastoral state of nations.
Edward GibbonYet the civilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen to dispose of his life . . .
Edward GibbonThe principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
Edward GibbonBut in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those barbarians who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction.
Edward Gibbon