Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes

Quotes about:

• Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Suicide, Civilization, Murder

  "A Time of Troubles" by S. Michael Craven, www.christianpost.com. June 29, 2011.

  102 Copy quote

• 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

  115 Copy quote

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

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Success, Teaching, Learning

  59 Copy quote

• 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

  71 Copy quote

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

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Real, Struggle, Justice

  43 Copy quote

• 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”

  89 Copy quote

• 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

  48 Copy quote

• 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”

  33 Copy quote

• 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)

  78 Copy quote

• 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”

  89 Copy quote
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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.

  69 Copy quote

• 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.

  154 Copy quote

• 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”

  73 Copy quote

• 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

  59 Copy quote

• 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

  "Man and Hunger: The Perspectives of History". Arnold J. Toynbee's speech to the World Food Congress, January 9, 1963.

  43 Copy quote

• 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

  45 Copy quote

• 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”

  60 Copy quote

• Nothing fails like success when you rely on it too much.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Too Much, Failing, Rely

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  49 Copy quote

• Human dignity can be achieved only in the field of ethics, and ethical achievement is measured by the degree in which our actions are governed by compassion and love, not by greed and aggressiveness.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Self Esteem, Compassion, Achievement

  10 Copy quote

• 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, Children, Husband

  24 Copy quote

• A city that outdistances man's walking powers is a trap for man.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Journey, Men, Cities

  20 Copy quote

• Adversity in the things of this world opens the door for spiritual salvation.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Spiritual, Adversity, Doors

  9 Copy quote

• My advice to any traveler who is traveling in order to learn would be: 'Fight tooth and nail to be permitted to travel in what is technically the least efficient way.'

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Fighting, Order, Advice

  13 Copy quote

• The course of human history consists of a series of encounters between individual human beings and God in which each man and woman or child, in turn, is challenged by God to make his free choice between doing God's will and refusing to do it.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Children, Men, Choices

  26 Copy quote

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