George Santayana? Edmund Burke? Winston Churchill?
Question for Quote Investigator: The study of history teaches vital lessons; however, those lessons are often unheeded. Here are five versions of a popular adage:
(1) Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
(2) Those who do not learn from the experience of history are doomed to repeat it.
(3) Those who cannot learn from the mistakes of the past are destined to repeat them.
(4) Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
(5) Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
This notion has been attributed to Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana, Anglo-Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, and British statesman Winston Churchill. Would you please help me to determine the correct phrasing together with a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1905 George Santayana published “The Life of Reason, or The Phases of Human Progress”. The twelfth chapter titled “Flux and Constancy In Human Nature” contained the following passage. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1
Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience.
QI has found no closely matching statement in the writings of Edmund Burke. He did pen a thematically related remark in his 1790 book titled “Reflections on the Revolution in France”:2
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
QI has found no match in the writings or speeches of Winston Churchill who died in 1965. The saying was linked to Churchill by 1985.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1905 the literary journal “The Dial” of Chicago, Illinois published a book review of Santayana’s “The Life of Reason”. The reviewer reprinted several quotations from the work:3
It is full of keen insight wedded to apt expression. Take these sentences for example: ‘Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.’ ‘There is nothing sweeter than to be sympathized with, while nothing requires a rarer intellectual heroism than the willingness to see one’s equation written out.’ ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ ‘Activity does not consist in velocity of change, but in constancy of purpose.’
In 1941 a columnist in “The Union-Banner” of Clanton, Alabama credited Santayana with a variant statement using the word “doomed”:4
For, as George Santayana said, “Those who ignore the lesson of the past, will be doomed to repeat it.”
In 1948 influential columnist Walter Lippmann published another version with an anonymous attribution:5
Conceivably General Robertson is right when he says that “these are strange times…. They have no parallel in history.” But he would do well to bear in mind the saying that those who do not learn from the experience of history are doomed to repeat it.
In 1959 the saying was attributed to unnamed philosophers by syndicated columnist Ralph McGill:6
We read history to learn of the past. But as philosophers have reminded us, if we do not learn from the errors of the past we are doomed to repeat them.
In 1962 U.S. politician Barry Goldwater employed an instance of the saying:7
It has been wisely said that men who will not learn from the past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
In 1972 U.S. politician Frank Church employed another version of the saying:8
It is truly said that those who cannot learn from the mistakes of the past are destined to repeat them.
In 1985 sports journalist Dave Campbell linked the saying to Winston Churchill:9
Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
If Winston Churchill was not the first to deliver that bit of wisdom, at least he went on record during World War II as believing it. Apparently some of our better-known sports organizations also are believers.
In 2007 an advertisement for an opera published in a Rochester, New York newspaper credited Churchill with the saying:10
“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!”
—Winston Churchill
In 2010 a columnist in Hattiesburg, Mississippi linked the saying to Santayana and Edmund Burke:11
Another old saw, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it,” is variously attributed to philosophers George Santayana and Edmund Burke.
In 2011 a columnist in Bristol, Tennessee ascribed the saying to Edmund Burke:12
British statesman Edmund Burke said years ago that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Our history teachers tried to tell us the same.
In conclusion, George Santayana deserves credit for the statement he wrote in 1905. Many variants of Santayana’s remark have evolved during subsequent years. The attributions of these sayings to Edmund Burke and Winston Churchill are unsubstantiated.
Image Notes: Metaphorical representation of the transience of historical knowledge. Picture from Éric Deschaintre at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Karl Gee, Susie Kuhn, Scott Schroeder, and Jane Bella whose remarks and inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Thanks also to the volunteer editors of Wikiquote.
- 1905, The Life of Reason, Or The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana, Chapter 12: Flux and Constancy In Human Nature, Quote Page 284 and 285, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1790, Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke, Second Edition, Quote Page 47 and 48, Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1905 May 16, The Dial: A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information, Volume 38, Number 454, Reason In Human Conduct by A. K. Rogers, (Book Review of George Santayana’s “The Life of Reason”), Start Page 349, Quote Page 349, Column 2, The Dial Company, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1941 October 2, The Union-Banner, A Column Of Comment by Irvin M. Lande, Quote Page 4, Column 4, Clanton, Alabama. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1948 April 12, The Berkshire Evening Eagle, Some Thoughts on the Approaching Contest Between U.S. and Russia Over German Unity by Walter Lippmann, Quote Page 12, Column 4, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1959 November 16, The Atlanta Constitution, History Asks Us a Question by Ralph McGill, Quote Page 1, Column 1, Atlanta, Georgia. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1962 January 11, The Atlanta Constitution, Everyone Should Read This Book by Barry Goldwater, Quote Page 4, Column 7, Atlanta, Georgia. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1972 May 15, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Only U. S. pullout can end war by Senator Frank Church, Quote Page 11, Column 3, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1985 April 26, Waco Tribune-Herald, Learning their history lessons by Dave Campbell (Sports Editor), Quote Page 1D, Column 1, Waco, Texas. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2007 March 31, Democrat and Chronicle, (Advertisement for Eastman Opera Theatre: Vincenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Quote Page 6C, Column 1, Rochester, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2010 June 15, Hattiesburg American, Insanity or ignorance? by Jack Hanbury, Quote Page 9A, Column 4, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2011 October 8, Bristol Herald Courier, Our View: Civil War mobile tells story of the people, Quote Page A14, Column 2, Bristol, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎