Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies.
Edward GibbonIt is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable.
Edward GibbonTheir poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.
Edward GibbonYet the experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes, and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height the human species may aspire in their advances towards perfection; but it may safely be presumed, that no people, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original barbarism.
Edward Gibbon