Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.
Category Archive: Arnold J. Toynbee
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.
A city that outdistances man’s walking powers is a trap for man.
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.
The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.
A life which does not go into action is a failure.
I do not believe that civilizations have to die because civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills.
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.
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization.
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.