Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes
1889–1975 England
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was a British historian and the nephew of Arnold Toynbee.
- England
- Historians
- Non-fiction authors
- Philosophers
Also known as: Arnold Joseph Toynbee
Random Arnold J. Toynbee quote
52 quotes
Man’s true end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.
Misattributed
America is like a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair!
Attributed
The coming of Buddhism to the West may well prove to be the most important event of the Twentieth Century.
Attributed
I do not believe that civilizations have to die...Civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills.
Attributed
The spirit of mutual good-will, esteem, and veritable love … is the traditional spirit of the religions of the Indian family.
Attributed
[I] cannot think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil.
Attributed
It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation is the ancient Hindu way. Here we have the attitude and spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together in to a single family.
Attributed
So now we turn to India. This spiritual gift, that makes a man human, is still alive in Indian souls. Go on giving the world Indian examples of it. Nothing else can do so much to help mankind to save itself from destruction.
Attributed
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. When threats force him to look at the limitations of his human power, he’s often ready to seek his spiritual one. What we need is patience and awe of God’s plan in human history!
Attributed
Of the twenty-two civilizations that appear in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. All nations have progressed through this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to selfishness
From selfishness to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependency
From dependency back again into bondage.
Attributed
I guess that both the West and the world are getting to turn away from man — worshipping ideologies — Communism and secular individualism alike — and become converted to an Oriental religion corning neither from Russia nor from the West. I guess that this will be the Christian religion that came to the Greeks and the Romans from Palestine, with one or two elements in traditional Christianity discarded and replaced by a new element from India, I expect and hope that this avatar of Christianity will include the vision of God as being Love. But I also expect and hope that it will discard the other traditional Christian vision of God as being a jealous god, and that it will reject the self-glorification of this jealous god's "chosen people" as being unique. This is where India comes in, with her belief that there may be more than one illuminating and saving approach to the mystery of the universe.
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There may or may not be only one single absolute truth and only one single ultimate way of salvation. We do not know. But we do know that there are more approaches to truth than one, and more means of salvation than one.’’‘‘This is a hard saying for adherents of the higher religions of the Judaic family (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but it is a truism for Hindus. The spirit of mutual good-will, esteem, and veritable love … is the traditional spirit of the religions of the Indian family. This is one of India’s gifts to the world.
Attributed