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

— Arnold J. Toynbee

Anxiety and conscience are a powerful pair of dynamos. Between them, they have ensured that I shall work hard but they cannot ensure that one shall work at anything worthwhile.

— 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.

— Arnold J. Toynbee

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.

— Arnold J. Toynbee

Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.

— Arnold J. Toynbee

Enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first an ideal which takes the imagination by storm and second a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.

— Arnold J. Toynbee

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

— Arnold J. Toynbee

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.

— Arnold J. Toynbee

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

— Arnold J. Toynbee

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.

— Arnold J. Toynbee