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.
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