Edward Gibbon

We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win.

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

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

- Edward Gibbon