Quotes · Skopia

16 quotes

Group bySubject Speaker Era Genre

Topic·Learning from the past✕clear

Philosophical literature3 quotes

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. — George Santayana · 1905 What experience and history teach is this-that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel · 1830 Neither the truth nor the character of history depend, in any way, upon its having some lesson to teach us. And if ever we persuade ourselves that the past has taught us something, we may be certain that it is not the historical past which has been our teacher. — Michael Oakeshott · 1933

Political literature3 quotes

At every step the natural light which illuminates their path grows dimmer and less secure; and that, in spite of all their efforts, they have as yet only discovered a small number of conflicting notions, on which the mind of man has been tossed about for thousands of years, without either laying a firmer grasp on truth, or finding novelty even in its errors. — Alexis de Tocqueville · 1840 Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred. — James Madison · 1787 People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. — Edmund Burke · 1790

Political speech3 quotes

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past. — Patrick Henry · 1775 From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future. — John Quincy Adams · 1825 It is necessary to keep the former experiences of our country both at home and abroad continually before us, if we are to have any science of government. If we wish to erect new structures, we must have a definite knowledge of the old foundations. We must realize that human nature is about the most constant thing in the universe and that the essentials of human relationship do not change. We must frequently take our bearings from these fixed stars of our political firmament if we expect to hold a true course. If we examine carefully what we have done, we can determine the more accurately what we can do. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925

Historical literature1 quote

If history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate what is good. — Venerable Bede · 731