“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
The Western Question in Greece and Turkey (Primary source)
The Western Question in Greece and Turkey: A Study in the Contact of Civilisations is a detailed, largely firsthand account of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 and its wider political context.
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“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. They were too weak to perform the role marked out for them, however great the bribe. They could not struggle on to the eighth square and turn into queens. On the contrary, they have displayed an exasperating faculty of making queens out of the opposing pawns. Greek and Turkish armies, fighting French and English battles, have aroused, and always will arouse, more resistance than they can overcome.”
Arnold J. Toynbee
“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 Primary source“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“Civilization, as we know it, is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbour.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“The most obvious way of reconciling oneself to death is to make sure of enjoying life before death snatches it from us.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary sourceMore quotes by Arnold J. Toynbee →
“The secret of great battles consists in knowing how to deploy and concentrate at the right time.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Without justice courage is weak.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Without imagination not much can be done.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“No one comes back from the dead; no one has come into the world without weeping. No one asks when one wants to come in; no one asks when one wants to go out.”
— Søren Kierkegaard Primary source