Posted by
TomD on Monday, July 24, 2006 1:27:51 PM
George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (From "Life of Reason" (1905))
I am often amazed at how misused this quote is, and also how misquoted it is. More often than not somebody will substitute the phrase "do not" for "cannot", and misapply the quote to try to make their argument that history repeats itself and we better know how to deal with it this time. The truth of the matter is, is that the quote is about advancement. If you cannot remember what you have learned, how can you learn something new. If you must constantly learn how to draw a letter "A", then how will you ever learn how to write a story. The ability of man to retain what he has learned without repetition is what has allowed mankind to achieve many of the great advancements in our history. It may be true that history repeats itself, pure chance will see to that, but do not use a quote that does not apply to try to make your argument.