Gibbon: “on True, False, and Useful”

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”

~ Edward Gibbon
(April 27, 1737 – January 16, 1794)
English historian and Member of Parliament.
His most important work, The History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,was
published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.

* This quote is often attributed to Seneca the Younger. To date no verifying record has been found in Seneca’s work.

As originally appears in Edward Gibbon’s ‘The History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire‘ — Volume 1:

The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. 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.

Resources:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Seneca_the_Younger
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/890

~cave canem~ vvvv