Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes

• 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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• 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

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• Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Suicide, Civilization, Murder

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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

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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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• 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

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

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Determination, Work, Live Life

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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

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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

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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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• 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

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

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Success, Teaching, Learning

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

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Moving, History, Vision

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• Write regularly, day in and day out, at whatever times of day you find that you write best. Don't wait till you feel that you are in the mood. Write, whether you are feeling inclined to write or not.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Writing, Waiting, Feelings

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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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• Love's way of dealing with us is different from conscience's way. Conscience commands; love inspires. What we do out of love, we do because we want to.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Love, Inspire, Different

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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

  Actors, World, Matter

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• The twentieth century will be chiefly remembered by future generations not as an era of political conflicts or technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical objective.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Thinking, Race, Political

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• The last stage but one of every civilisation, is characterised by the forced political unification of its constituent parts, into a single greater whole.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Freedom, Power, Political

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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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