---
title: "It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of li… — Arnold Joseph Toynbee Quote #17 | QuotesBy.net"
description: "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 its… — a quote by Arnold Joseph Toynbee."
image: "https://quotesby.net/wp-content/themes/quotesby-editorial/assets/og-default.png"
---

> # 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.

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## More from Arnold Joseph Toynbee

1. > I don't believe a committee can write a book. It can, oh, govern a country, perhaps, but I don't believe it can write a book.

[Permalink to quote \#16](https://quotesby.net/Arnold-Joseph-Toynbee/16/ "Permalink to quote 16")
2. > Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.

[Permalink to quote \#18](https://quotesby.net/Arnold-Joseph-Toynbee/18/ "Permalink to quote 18")
3. > I do not believe that civilizations have to die because civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills.

[Permalink to quote \#15](https://quotesby.net/Arnold-Joseph-Toynbee/15/ "Permalink to quote 15")

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