Create Yours

Top 25 Polly Toynbee Quotes (2025 Update)

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Working lives are for the state to influence. Unemployment makes people unhappy. So does instability.”

1. “Working lives are for the state to influence. Unemployment makes people unhappy. So does instability.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “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?”

2. “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

Polly Toynbee Quote: “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.”

3. “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

Polly Toynbee Quote: “One in six people suffer depression or a chronic anxiety disorder. These are not the worried well but those in severe mental pain with conditions crippling enough to prevent them living normal lives.”

4. “One in six people suffer depression or a chronic anxiety disorder. These are not the worried well but those in severe mental pain with conditions crippling enough to prevent them living normal lives.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Thresholds of pain, indignity and incapacity are entirely personal.”

5. “Thresholds of pain, indignity and incapacity are entirely personal.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition.”

6. “This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Most people come to fear not death itself, but the many terrible ways of dying.”

7. “Most people come to fear not death itself, but the many terrible ways of dying.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Feminism is the most revolutionary idea there has ever been. Equality for women demands a change in the human psyche, more profound than anything Marx dreamed of. It means valuing parenthood as much as we value banking.”

8. “Feminism is the most revolutionary idea there has ever been. Equality for women demands a change in the human psyche, more profound than anything Marx dreamed of. It means valuing parenthood as much as we value banking.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “There is all the difference in the world between teaching children about religion and handing them over to be taught by the religious.”

9. “There is all the difference in the world between teaching children about religion and handing them over to be taught by the religious.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust of women’s bodies.”

10. “Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust of women’s bodies.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “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.”

11. “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

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Inequality makes everyone unhappy, the poor most of all, and that is well within the remit of the state. More money gives less extra happiness the richer we get, yet we are addicted to earning and spending more every year.”

12. “Inequality makes everyone unhappy, the poor most of all, and that is well within the remit of the state. More money gives less extra happiness the richer we get, yet we are addicted to earning and spending more every year.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “But instead of standing up for reason, our government is handing education over to the world of faith.”

13. “But instead of standing up for reason, our government is handing education over to the world of faith.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Nothing keeps people together like the exalted conviction that they alone are to be spared that eternal anguish of hell fire to which everyone else will be condemned.”

14. “Nothing keeps people together like the exalted conviction that they alone are to be spared that eternal anguish of hell fire to which everyone else will be condemned.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “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.”

15. “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

Polly Toynbee Quote: “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.”

16. “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

Polly Toynbee Quote: “The strongest predictor of unhappiness is anyone who has had a mental illness in the last 10 years. It is an even stronger predictor of unhappiness than poverty – which also ranks highly.”

17. “The strongest predictor of unhappiness is anyone who has had a mental illness in the last 10 years. It is an even stronger predictor of unhappiness than poverty – which also ranks highly.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “In the polls, over 80% support the right to die and have done for the last 25 years. Even 80% of practising Catholics and Protestants support it, plus 76% of Church Times readers.”

18. “In the polls, over 80% support the right to die and have done for the last 25 years. Even 80% of practising Catholics and Protestants support it, plus 76% of Church Times readers.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “But the single overwhelming reason why jails are bursting is longer sentences given for more crimes.”

19. “But the single overwhelming reason why jails are bursting is longer sentences given for more crimes.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge.”

20. “Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Crime is only the worst example, but it is a paradigm for other Labour policy disasters. No one tells the voters that crime is falling: let them stay scared senseless.”

21. “Crime is only the worst example, but it is a paradigm for other Labour policy disasters. No one tells the voters that crime is falling: let them stay scared senseless.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “So what really works? Treatments in jail do some good, but it’s mostly too late: finding a family and a job or just growing older make most prisoners eventually give up crime.”

22. “So what really works? Treatments in jail do some good, but it’s mostly too late: finding a family and a job or just growing older make most prisoners eventually give up crime.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “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.”

23. “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

Polly Toynbee Quote: “The best care on earth cannot prevent us all dying in the end.”

24. “The best care on earth cannot prevent us all dying in the end.”

— Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee Quote: “Openness about death has led to greater care about all aspects of dying.”

25. “Openness about death has led to greater care about all aspects of dying.”

— Polly Toynbee

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 25 Polly Toynbee Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.