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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.

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
Used
Practical
Wells
Historical
Might
Intellectual
Well
Dead
Nothing
Use
Life
History
Like
Stuff
Action
Practicals

More quotes by Arnold J. Toynbee

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No being can be what he is unless he is putting his essence into action in his field.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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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
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Angkor is perhaps the greatest of Man's essays in rectangular architecture that has yet been brought to life.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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Man's true end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.
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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
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Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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There is no such thing as gratitude in international politics.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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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
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The immense cities lie basking on the beaches of the continent like whales that have taken to the land.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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Adversity in the things of this world opens the door for spiritual salvation.
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.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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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
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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
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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.
Arnold J. Toynbee