Quotes from Arnold J. Toynbee

Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

I can not think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil.

There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.

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

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

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

We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves.

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

America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.

The equation of religion with belief is rather recent.

History not used is nothing, for all intellectual life is action, like practical life, and if you don't use the stuff - well, it might as well be dead.

The immense cities lie basking on the beaches of the continent like whales that have taken to the land.

A life which does not go into action is a failure.

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

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

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.

A life which does not go into action is a failure.

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

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 equation of religion with belief is rather recent.

America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.

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.

History teaches us that when a barbarian race confronts a sleeping culture, the barbarian always wins.