Edward Gibbon

The five marks of the Roman decaying culture: Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth; Obsession with sex and perversions of sex; Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original; Widening disparity between very rich and very poor; Increased demand to live off the state.

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

The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.

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

The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.

The works of nature and the works of revelation display religion to mankind in characters so large and visible that those who are not quite blind may see them.

The public has often been led by the nose with such deceptions; and yet, when it is once undeceived, it is not easy to restore the former belief.

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

The style of the fathers is a faithful picture of their manners and character.

The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects.

The poor were sacrificed to the pleasures of the rich.