Memoirs
When I contemplate the common lot of mortality, I must acknowledge that I have drawn a high prize in the lottery of life. The far greater part of the globe is overspread with barbarism and slavery; in the civilized world the most numerous class is condemned to ignorance and poverty; and the double fortune of my birth in a free and enlightened country, in an honourable and wealthy family, is the lucky chance of a unit against millions.
Gibbon was also not dissatisfied when his profligate father died and left him at least some of the estate that had been entailed him. This is either callous or supremely realistic; I cannot quite tell which.