History & Philosophy✓ Verified source
“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
— Arnold J. Toynbee
Historian
A Study of History (1934–1961), Vol. 7 (1954). Also in Civilization on Trial (1957 [1946]) p. 247
About this quote
- Attributed to
- Arnold J. Toynbee
- Source
- A Study of History (1934–1961), Vol. 7 (1954). Also in Civilization on Trial (1957 [1946]) p. 247
- Attribution status
- ✓ Verified source
- Verification
- Primary reference
Photo: Wilfredor · CC0 · source · Portrait: Unknown author (CC BY-SA 3.0 nl)
Reflect
What would change if you lived this for one week?
The Sage Challenge
Write one sentence in your journal about what this means to you.
Join to journal, save & shareCreate a share imageWatch & listen
Andrew Carnegie: Gospel of Wealth, Narrated by Brian Cox
Andrew Carnegie Foundation·Prosperity
9 Stoic Rules For A Better Life (From Marcus Aurelius)
Daily Stoic·History
Who is Seneca? (Rome's Greatest Stoic Thinker)
Daily Stoic·History
More from Arnold J. Toynbee & related wisdom
History✓ Verified source
“Let a man once overcome his selfish terror at his own finitude, and his finitude is, in one sense, overcome.
— George Santayana
Introduction to The Ethics of Spinoza (1910)
History✓ Verified source
“Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.
— Epicurus
The Essential Epicurus : Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican sayings, and fragments (1993) edited by Eugene Michael O'Connor, p. 99
History✓ Verified source
“Thus, the wise man looks into space, and does not regard the small as too little, nor the great as too much; for he knows that there is no limit to dimension.
— Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi, Ch. 17 莊子/秋水 (tr. Herbert A. Giles, 1889)
History✓ Verified source
“Before a man can do things there must be things he will not do.
— Mencius
Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.