Gibbon on religion

[Jauchart]

Gibbon is reported to have written somewhere something to the effect that "the poor thought religion was all true, the philosophers thought it was all false, and the magistrates thought it was useful." Can anyone help me find this quote?

 

Thanks

[Aurelia]

I think the quote you are looking for is:

 

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. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.

 

Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1 (1776)

 

 

I'm not 100% sure but I think this is based on a quote originally attributed to Seneca.

Edited March 9, 2011 by Aurelia

[DecimusCaesar]

Interesting. I've found an almost identical quote being attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte over the years. I think it's the type of quote that tends to be misattributed, similar to the claim about Josef Stalin and "One death is a tragedy, a Million a statistic."

[abvgd]

I thought it was Seneca's quote

But looking at Seneca @ Wikiquote, the attribution of the quote to him seems to be under dispute...

[Ursus]

I doubt Seneca or any Roman philosopher would outright declare religion to be false. That would earn them a charge of atheism, of betraying the state gods of Rome, etc.

 

 

Besides which, the philosophers seemed to feel that the cults of the common people were, rather than being false, simply a degraded form of higher truth that uneducated people could understand.