#ow

As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility. ↗

— Arnold J. Toynbee

#beings #cannot #choice #endowed #god

Happiness is a real, objective phenomenon, scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for unhappiness can be quantified. ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#another #causes #compared #cures #happiness

Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. ↗

— Arnold J. Toynbee

#always #decide #god #had #his

Could a government dare to set out with happiness as its goal? Now that there are accepted scientific proofs, it would be easy to audit the progress of national happiness annually, just as we monitor money and GDP. ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#annually #audit #could #dare #easy

How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions? ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#art #culture #history #how #iconography

People want the right to die at a time of their own choosing. Too many families have watched helplessly as a relative dies slowly, longing for death. ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#death #die #dies #families #helplessly

It is now possible to quantify people's levels of happiness pretty accurately by asking them, by observation, and by measuring electrical activity in the brain, in degrees from terrible pain to sublime joy. ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#activity #asking #brain #degrees #electrical

I am young. I better show off what I have now. ↗

— Michelle Trachtenberg

#better #i #i am #now #off

My mother begged doctors to end her life. She was beyond the physical ability to swallow enough of the weak morphine pills she had around her. When she knew she was dying I promised to make sure she could go at a time of her choosing, but it was impossible. I couldn't help. ↗

— Polly Toynbee

#around #begged #beyond #choosing #could

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average. ↗

— Derek Walcott

#going #know #poem #write #writing