Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
227
AUTHOR:
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (18891975)
QUOTATION:
On this showing, the nature of the breakdowns of civilizations can be summed up in three points: a failure of creative power in the minority, an answering withdrawal of mimesis on the part of the majority, and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.
ATTRIBUTION:
ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE, A Study of History, vol. 4, part B, p. 6 (1948).