A. Whitney Brown Quotes

The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.

Unfortunately, we don't seem to learn from history, do we? And you'd think we would.

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.

The ability to forget the past enables people to free themselves gradually from the pain they once suffered; but it also often makes them repeat the mistakes of their predecessors.

Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. I knew people who can't even learn from what happened this morning. Hegel must have been taking the long view.

Even if we remember the past, odds are good we'll still repeat it.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

If all human beings understood history, they might cease making the same stupid mistakes over and over.

One of mankind's problems is we keep committing the same errors.

Happily for the busy lunatics who rule over us, we are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing.

History should teach humility and prudence, but America doesn’t seem to learn. I’ve never seen a virgin who loses her innocence more often.

The collective memory of America is short.

The problem with an economic meltdown is that the responsibility and the challenges to deal with the environment are squandered. That's an age-old battle in terms of the major conflicts in places like Afghanistan, etc. So there are age-old battles that'll keep going on. Unfortunately, man is a very slow learner, and we tend to repeat mistakes, as opposed to learning from mistakes.

My dear Madame, I just noticed that I forgot my cane at your house yesterday; please be good enough to give it to the bearer of this letter. P.S. Kindly pardon me for disturbing you; I just found my cane.

Is the only lesson of history to be that mankind is unteachable?

Because when a guy does something stupid once, well, that’s because he’s guy. But if he does the same stupid thing twice, that’s usually to impress some girl.

One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.

The lessons of history teach us - if the lessons of history teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.

People just make stupid mistakes. And they keep making them and keep making them, and suddenly they can't dig themselves out.

One mistake will never kill you. The same mistake over and over again will.

Some say, 'Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.' I say, 'Those who ignore history are in for a big surprise.'

I usually never stay at the board after a game. Especially against Spassky. I made a dumb suggestion and he refuted it instantly! I know I'm going to have to play him some day and it was really stupid to look like such a jerk in front of him.

men don't make different mistakes at different periods of their lives. They make the same mistake over and over again and they pay a bigger and bigger price for it.

You know that old phrase ‘Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it’? Well, I think those who remember the past are even worse off.

Trying to convince myself I've found one. Making the mistake I never learned from.