Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes

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• Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Civilization, Umpires, Two

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• Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Suicide, Civilization, Murder

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• Religion holds the solution to all problems of human relationship, whether they are between parents and children or nation and nation. Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Children, Men, Parent

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  Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Change, Wisdom, Art

  Quoted in Reader's Digest, Oct 1958.

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• The only real struggle in the history of the world ... is between the vested interest and social justice.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Real, Struggle, Justice

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• The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Freedom, Islamic, Race

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1949). “Civilization on Trial”

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• Civilizations, I believe, come to birth and proceed to grow by successfully responding to successive challenges. They break down and go to pieces if and when a challenge confronts them that they fail to meet.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Believe, Civilization, Ifs And

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1949). “Civilization on Trial”

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• On this showing, the nature of the breakdowns of civilizations can be summed up in three points: a failure of creative power in the minority, an answering withdrawal of mimesis on the part of the majority, and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Loss, Civilization, Creative

  A Study of History (D. C. Somervell abridgement), bk. 4, ch. 13 (1947)

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• It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Inspirational, Motivational, Believe

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1949). “Civilization on Trial”

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• The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Inspirational, Determination, Work

  "Mindfulness" edited by Ellen J. Langer, (p. 133), 1989.

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• Immaturity means self-centeredness, inability to compromise, to rise above hurt feelings, to postpone immediate pleasures in favor of future benefits, or to do unpleasant chores when they need to be done.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Hurt, Mean, Self

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• The aim of all education is, or should be, to teach people to educate themselves.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Success, Teaching, Learning

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• Of the twenty or so civilizations known to modern Western historians, all except our own appear to be dead or moribund, and, when we diagnose each case... we invariably find that the cause of death has been either War or Class or some combination of the two.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  War, Civilization, Class

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1949). “Civilization on Trial”

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• Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, with takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

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• As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Freedom, Responsibility, Choices

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1949). “Civilization on Trial”

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• The absolute value of love makes life worth while, and so makes Man's strange and difficult situation acceptable. Love cannot save life from death; but it can fulfill life's purpose.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Men, Difficult Situations, Purpose

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• The penalty of affluence is that it cuts one off from the common lot, common experience, and common fellowship. In a sense it outlaws one automatically from one's birthright of membership in the great human family.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Cutting, Membership, Common Experience

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• The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenceless against ourselves.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Inspirational, Motivational, Anger

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• Material power that is not counterbalanced by adequate spiritual power, that is, by love and wisdom, is a curse

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Spiritual, Adequate, Curse

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• The world's greatest need . . . is mutual confidence. No human being ever knows all the secrets of another's heart. Yet there is enough confidence between mother and child, husband and wife, buyer and seller . . . to make social life a practical possibility. Confidence may be risky, but it is nothing like so risky as mistrust.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Mother, Husband, Children

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• Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Power, Men, Worship

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• Man's true end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Men, Glorifying God, Ends

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• The West has never been all of the world that matters. The West has not been the only actor on the stage of modern history even at the peak of the West's power (and this peak has perhaps now already been passed)... It has not been the West that has been hit by the world; it has been the world that has been hit - and hit hard - by the West.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Matter, West, Actors

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• History is a vision of God's creation on the move.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Moving, History, Vision

  Arnold J. Toynbee (1987). “A Study of History: Abridgement of”, p.390, Oxford University Press

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• I believe that a religious conversion is the only way to stimulate the peoples of the industrialized nations to be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of esho funi (the oneness of self and environment). ... I wish the entire world would accept as an item of religious faith the concept of esho funi and its moral obligations.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Religious, Believe, Sacrifice

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