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I'm a little confused by this part of the quote:

> 'Although history never repeats itself, we are now experiencing a strong return of little nations...`

I've never heard the phrase "history never repeats itself", I've only ever heard "history repeats itself."

Is this a saying that comes out of Italy, or am I just grossly uninformed?



view as:

Let's see...

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=history+never+...

Looks like "history repeats itself" is clearly the more frequent formulation.


Some of the common quotes:

"History never repeats itself, but it rhymes"

-Mark Twain

Split enz also has a popular song with "History never repeats. I tell myself before I go to sleep".

The other quote you're your probably thinking of

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

-George Santayana

So all in all I'd say you're right on the thrust of the generally popular quotes but not necessarily on their wording.


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