Toynbee argues that relations between states should not be understood in the same terms as personal relationships. A government may remember assistance received from another country, but gratitude alone is unlikely to determine its later conduct. When circumstances change, governments tend to respond to present interests, pressures and calculations rather than treating past favours as binding obligations.

The statement is deliberately categorical. Its practical point is that states should not expect earlier generosity, military support or diplomatic assistance to guarantee future loyalty. Alliances and partnerships endure when the interests of the parties continue to overlap, not simply because one side feels indebted to the other. Toynbee therefore presents international politics as a sphere in which expectations of reciprocity must be grounded in continuing political realities. The quotation can be read as a warning against confusing moral indebtedness between individuals with the more contingent relationships between states.