Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon (27 April 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organized religion.

Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. He had six siblings: five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. His grandfather, also named Edward, had lost all of his assets as a result of the South Sea Bubble stock market collapse in 1720, but eventually regained much of his wealth, so that Gibbon's father was able to inherit a substantial estate.

As a youth, his health was under constant threat. He described himself as "a puny child, neglected by my Mother, starved by my nurse." At age nine, Gibbon was sent to Dr. Woddeson's school at Kingston upon Thames (now Kingston Grammar School), shortly after which his mother died. He then took up residence in the Westminster School boarding house, owned by his adored "Aunt Kitty," Catherine Porten. Soon after she died in 1786, he remembered her as rescuing him from his mother's disdain, and imparting "the first rudiments of knowledge, the first exercise of reason, and a taste for books which is still the pleasure and glory of my life." By 1751, Gibbon's reading was already extensive and certainly pointed toward his future pursuits: Laurence Echard's Roman History (1713), William Howel(l)'s An Institution of General History (1680–85), and several of the 65 volumes of the acclaimed Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time (1747–1768).

Famous quotes by Edward Gibbon:

"A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute."

"The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators."

"The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness."

"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."

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

"Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius"

"We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win."

"Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes."

"I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect."

"Our work is the presentation of our capabilities."

"I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being."

"The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive."

"Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition."

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

"Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself."

"History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."

"History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."

"My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India."

"The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events."

photo: AP / Mikhail Klimentyev/SPUTNIK, Kremlin Pool Photo

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a video conference with the top military brass on a Russian air campaign in Syria, in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 20, 2015.

Putin blasts West on first trip to EU country this year

Edit St Louis Post-Dispatch 28 May 2016

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — On his first trip to a European Union country this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday sharply criticized western policy toward Moscow, describing a newly expanded U.S. missile defense system as a threat to his… ... ....

photo: Public Domain / Alexas_Fotos

'Mass rape' video on social media shocks Brazil

Edit BBC News 27 May 2016

Brazilian police are hunting more than 30 men suspected of raping a teenage girl in Rio de Janeiro, and of putting video of the attack on social media. The girl is reported to have gone to her boyfriend's house on Saturday and to have regained consciousness later, surrounded by the men ... ....

photo: AP / Leo Correa

A woman wearing a female gender symbol attends a protest against the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, May 27, 2016.

Brazil police identify 4 of 30-plus men wanted in gang rape

Edit One India 28 May 2016

Rio de Janeiro, May 28. Police has said that they have identified and are searching for four of the more than 30 men suspected in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl, a case that has rocked Latin America's largest nation ... ....

photo: AP / Paul Sancya

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event, Monday, April 4, 2016, in Milwaukee.

It’s Game On for Sanders and Trump but Game Over for Hillary

Edit WorldNews.com 27 May 2016

Article by WNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. While it hasn’t been a good week for Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, the latest twist and turn in this surprising 2016 presidential race has just caused Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’ poll numbers to surge. Indeed, on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the presumptive Republican nominee was asked if he would consider debating with Sanders ... But it gets even worse ... Sanders....

photo: AP / Luca Bruno

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo scores the decisive penalty kick during the Champions League final soccer match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at the San Siro stadium in Milan

Real Madrid wins Champions League in penalty shootout

Edit Deseret News 29 May 2016

MILAN — Cristiano Ronaldo did it again for Real Madrid, stepping forward to score a penalty and inflicting another devastating loss in a Champions League final on rival Atletico Madrid. For the second time in three years, the biggest game in club soccer ended with Ronaldo sealing victory then ripping off his shirt to show off his muscled torso for adoring fans ... "I knew I was going to score the winning penalty ... ....

search tools

You can search using any combination of the items listed below.

Language:

Sort type:

Arrived Within:

Search Type:

The Sacred Combe review: Thomas Maloney's atmospheric novel of literary delights

Edit Sydney Morning Herald 26 May 2016

The Sacred Combe ... Suddenly dumped by his wife after three years of marriage, banker Samuel Browne retreats into the longest book he can find, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ... ....

Here's What Needs to Happen

Edit Alternet 20 May 2016

The Founders were all reading Edward Gibbon's then-new account of how the Roman republic had slipped, degree by self-deluding degree, into imperial tyranny. Bad but clever leaders bedazzled citizens out of their liberties by titillating and intimidating them into being bread-and-circus mobs that, as Gibbon put it, "no longer possessed that public ......

Who Was David Hume?

Edit The New York Review of Books 07 May 2016

Another British visitor to d’Holbach’s salon, Hume’s young admirer Edward Gibbon, reported that they “laughed at the scepticism of Hume,” though this seems to have been a good-tempered affair. By “scepticism” Gibbon meant what would now be called “agnosticism.” The principles of Hume’s ......

Humans and Russell T Davies honoured with BAFTAs at the British Television Craft Awards

Edit Digital Spy 25 Apr 2016

FICTION Alex Mackie - An Inspector Calls  David Blackmore - Wolf Hall - WINNER! Matthew Gray - This Is England '90 Victoria Boydell - London Spy ENTERTAINMENT CRAFT TEAM sponsored by Hotcam ANDREW NORGATE, AIDEN SPACKMAN, KEVIN DAY, KEVIN DUFF A League of their Own JAMES CLARKE, MARK OWEN, JOHN FEATHERSTONE, ......

New interim leader of Fairborn schools

Edit Dayton Daily News 11 Apr 2016

Edward Gibbons was approved last week by the school board as interim superintendent after Terry Riley's letter of resignation was accepted ... ....

Jays' Gibbons on 'dress' comment: "The world needs to lighten up"

Edit CBS Sports 06 Apr 2016

Gibbons tells reporters ... Some perceived Gibbons' remarks to be sexist in nature, and he received quite a bit of pushback on social media ... As Brendan Kennedy and Peter Edwards of the Toronto Star report, Gibbons explained himself while not apologizing. ... Kennedy and Edwards have more of Gibbons' day-after comments....

Montesquieu Forum on April 14-15 to feature views of international scholars (Roosevelt University)

Edit Public Technologies 05 Apr 2016

(Source. Roosevelt University). Posted. 04/05/2016 ... Womersley's speech will be at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, in the Sullivan Room, on the second floor of Roosevelt, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago ... Womersley, who will lecture on 'Was Gibbon a Civic Humanist?' published two monographs on historian Edward Gibbon and edited the critical edition of Gibbon's most important work, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire .' ... in the Sullivan Room....

The Military Leviathan: A Force Unto Itself

Edit Real Clear Politics 28 Mar 2016

This article first appeared in TomDispatch. In the decades since the draft ended in 1973, a strange new military has emerged in the United States. Think of it, if you will, as a post-democratic force that prides itself on its warrior ethos rather than the old-fashioned citizen-soldier ideal ... An Undemocratic Amalgam ... (Think ... Writing in the eighteenth century about the decline and fall of Rome, the historian Edward Gibbon noted that. ... 1 . 2 ....

A House Full of Daughters by Juliet Nicolson review – seven generations of secrets, jealousy and love

Edit The Guardian 25 Mar 2016

Nicolson’s family story has been written many times, but never before with the focus on daughters. It makes for a troubling, entertaining tale ... It is also about those fathers who turned out to be the more reliable and loving parent ... There is Old Lionel squirting orange juice into Vita’s eyes to make her beautiful, and his “biannual habit” of reading Edward Gibbon’s six volumes on the Roman Empire ... ....

Appeal to Authority Part 3: Leaving Plato's Cave, a Student Guide

Edit Huffington Post 24 Mar 2016

travel, philosophy, and reading ... G. Wells' Outline of History, Hendrik Van Loon's Story of Mankind, Ernst Gombrich's Little History of the World, Will and Ariel Durant's 11-volume epic, The Story of Civilization, Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Norman F, Cantor's The Civilization of the Middle Ages, Peter Gay's The Enlightenment (2 vols.), and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States ... ....

America’s Post-Democratic Military

Edit Antiwar 23 Mar 2016

Originally posted at TomDispatch. In recent times, one of the strangest aspects of war, American-style, has been the inability of the most powerful military on the planet to extricate itself from any of the conflicts it’s initiated or somehow gotten itself involved in – even those it’s officially walked away from ... Writing in the eighteenth century about the decline and fall of Rome, the historian Edward Gibbon noted that.....

A Force Unto Itself

Edit Huffington Post 22 Mar 2016

A Military Leviathan Has Emerged as America’s 51st and Most Powerful State. Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com ... a new dynamic in modern American history, the creation of a massive military force that is not of the people, by the people, or for the people. It is, of course, a dynamic hardly new to history. Writing in the eighteenth century about the decline and fall of Rome, the historian Edward Gibbon noted that. ... U.S ... ....

McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles to Host Fourth Annual Elliott Conference on Great Books and Ideas (Mercer University)

Edit Public Technologies 21 Mar 2016

(Source. Mercer University). MACON - Mercer University's Thomas C. and Ramona E. McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles will host its fourth annual A.V ... Will R ... 'Among other events, this was the year Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, Edward Gibbon published his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the great Scottish thinker David Hume died ... The opening lecture will be delivered by Dr ... Dr ... He will present '1776 ... Dr....

Gibbons, Edward Filmography

Gibbon, Edward Filmography

Matching books: