“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
“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“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“They rushed into it with their eyes open because they could not resist the bait.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“The fact that I am neither a Greek nor a Turk perhaps creates little presumption of my being fair-minded, for Western partisans of non-Western peoples are often more fanatical than their favourites.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary sourceMore quotes by Arnold J. Toynbee →
“Great estates may venture more; little boats must keep near shore.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“You’re much more likely to do well if you start out to do something feasible instead of something that isn’t feasible. Isn’t that perfectly obvious?”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“They rushed into it with their eyes open because they could not resist the bait.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source