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Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.

Arnold J. Toynbee

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Arnold J. Toynbee
Age: 85 †
Born: 1889
Born: April 14
Died: 1975
Died: January 1
Diplomat
Historian
University Teacher
London
England
Toynbee
Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Arnold Toynbee
Civilization
Dies
Civilizations
Suicide
Murder

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Adversity in the things of this world opens the door for spiritual salvation.
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Angkor is perhaps the greatest of Man's essays in rectangular architecture that has yet been brought to life.
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Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.
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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.
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Our western science is a child of moral virtues and it must now become the father of further moral virtues if its extraordinary material triumphs in our time are not to bring human history to an abrupt, unpleasant and discreditable end.
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No being can be what he is unless he is putting his essence into action in his field.
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There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.
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We human beings do have some genuine freedom of choice and therefore some effective control over our own destinies. I am not a determinist. But I also believe that the decisive choice is seldom the latest choice in the series. More often than not, it will turn out to be some choice made relatively far back in the past.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Nothing fails like success when you rely on it too much.
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The immense cities lie basking on the beaches of the continent like whales that have taken to the land.
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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.
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I do not believe that civilizations have to die because civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills.
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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.
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Man's true end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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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.
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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.
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History is a vision of God's creation on the move.
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