Political Quotes

“I would like to begin talking a little bit about history, generally, rather than the topic that has been the subject of the prior remarks, and then get into the question that has been raised today. There are several cliches about history, and one of the problems with cliches is you hear them so often they lose their meaning, and you just sort of sluff them off. But these two, I think, do have some meaning, and they have become cliches because they are true. One is, if you ignore history, you are doomed to repeat it. I have been hearing that all my life. If you don't know your history and if you ignore history, you are doomed to repeat it. The second is attributed to Mark Twain who said: History doesn't always repeat itself, but it [usually] rhymes. And that means that things that have happened in the past may not be exactly what happens in the future, but the history predicts the future. I recently finished a biography of Cicero, the great Roman statesman, and he said something about history that really stuck with me, which is: If you don't know the history of your civilization, you live your whole life as a child.”