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.

Arnold J. Toynbee

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Toynbee, Arnold J. Quoted in A Study of History: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI, written by D.C. Somervell. Oxford University Press, 1948, vol. 4.