I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.
Edward GibbonWe may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race.
Edward GibbonBut a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times . . .
Edward GibbonThe brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives; and a nice question of casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. There were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind and more general concern.
Edward Gibbon