History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. – Edward Gibbon
The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant. – Edward Gibbon
My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language. – Edward Gibbon
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. – Edward Gibbon
A mere compilation of facts presents only the skeleton of History; we do but little for her if we cannot invest her with life, clothe her in the habiliments of her day, and enable her to call forth the sympathies of succeeding generations. – Hannah Farnham Lee, The Huguenots in France and America