[All] the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks.
Edward Gibbon[The] penalty of death was abolished in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety.
Edward GibbonIt is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable.
Edward Gibbon