Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom.
Interpretation
Hope offers comfort in difficult conditions and can lead to freedom through hard work and loyalty.
This quote by Edward Gibbon reflects on the concept of hope as a source of comfort for individuals in difficult situations, such as a Roman slave. It suggests that even in the harshest of circumstances, the possibility of achieving freedom through dedication and valuable contributions is a powerful motivator that keeps the spirit alive.
In practice
During a speech on resilience in tough times.
It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.
And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience.
In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome.
Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.
We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.
Probability is the very guide of life.
I think that inside every adult is the heart of a child. We just gradually convince ourselves that we have to act more like adults.
Relaxing your hair is like being in prison. You're caged in. Your hair rules you. You didn't go running with Curt today because you don't want to sweat out this straightness. You're always battling to make your hair do what it wasn't meant to do.
A minority is only thought of as a minority when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority, real or imaginary. And no threat is ever quite imaginary.
Christianity is in its nature revolutionary
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