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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the bittersweet nature of freedom and fame, acknowledging the melancholy of leaving behind the past and facing the uncertainty of life.
In this quote, Edward Gibbon expresses the complex emotions tied to his newfound freedom and potential fame. While he initially experiences joy, he is quickly overshadowed by a sense of sorrow and contemplation regarding the transience of life and the inevitability of parting from cherished experiences and companions. This dichotomy highlights the profound nature of human experience—where triumph is often accompanied by loss, prompting reflection on the meaning of existence and legacy.
In practice
This quote can be used at a graduation speech to emphasize the bittersweet nature of moving on.
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.
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.
The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.
The Gross National Product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America - except whether we are proud to be Americans.
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
I am convinced that when a man sincerely searches for God with all his heart, God will reveal Himself in some way.
Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.
Life is better lived than conceptualized. — This writing can be less demanding should I allow myself to indulge in the usual manipulating game of role creation. Fortunately for me, my self-knowledge has transcended that and I’ve come to understand that life is best to be lived — not to be conceptualized. If you have to think, you still do not understand.
Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.
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