“History, in the objective meaning of the word, is the process of change; in the subjective meaning, it is the study of how and why one situation changes into another.”
Arnold J. Toynbee
Change and Habit (Primary source)
Change and Habit: The Challenge of Our Time examines what Toynbee saw as the defining political and social crisis of the modern era: the dangerous mismatch between the accelerating pace of historical change and humanity’s deep-seated habits, particularly the habit of organizing into rival sovereign states.
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“It will be seen that Man’s social and cultural heritage is the field of history. History, in the objective meaning of the word, is the process of change; in the subjective meaning, it is the study of how and why one situation changes into another. History is the ’living garment’ that the Time-Spirit is always weaving for mankind on the ’humming loom of Time’. At the social and cultural level of human life, time spells change, whether deliberate or involuntary.”
Arnold J. Toynbee
“Technology is, of course, only a long Greek name for a bag of tools; and we have to ask ourselves: What are the tools that count in this competition in the use of tools as means to power?”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“A life which does not go into action is a failure.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“They rushed into it with their eyes open because they could not resist the bait.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“The statesmen miscalculated again. Their fellow-countrymen had the means to carry out their policy but not the will; their pawns had the will without the means.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary sourceMore quotes by Arnold J. Toynbee →
“I have never seen the philosopher’s stone that turns lead into gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a man’s gold into lead.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Remember too that your time is your one finite resource, and when you say yes to one thing you are inevitably saying no to another.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source“The history of man is the history of the continuous replacement of certain elites: as one ascends, another declines.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“The person who is the star of a previous era is often the last one to adapt to change.”
— Andrew S. Grove Primary source