Storia della decadenza e caduta dell'Impero romano

В действительности, история это немного больше, чем перечень преступлений, бредовых поступков и невезений человечества

Редко бывает, чтобы человек, долго употреблявший умственные способности на государственные дела, мог оставаться наедине с собой

Народ, который напыщен гордостью, точно так же, как и тот, который ожесточен от
страданий, не в состоянии верно оценить своего действительного положения.

Для защиты государства не прибегают к помощи кинжала, пока существует какое-либо доверие к могуществу меча.

“But the nobles of Rome were more tenacious of property than of freedom.”

“The small remainder of this destroying host returned on board their vessels; and measuring back their way through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy... As soon as they found themselves in safety within the basin of the Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Haemus; and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths.”

“...those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.”

“Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.”

“In the general account of this war, it is easy to discover the opposite prejudices of the Gothic and the Grecian writer. In carelessness alone they are alike.”

“The German huts, open, on every side, to the eye of indiscretion or jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity, than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian haram.”

“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.”