“Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it.”

— Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The Bitter Heritage: Vietnam and American Democracy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966) p. 91

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Feb. 23, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it." by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.?

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. 5

American historian, social critic, and public intellectual 1917–2007

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Ibid.
Essays and reviews

“Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Really? Human nature being what it is, isn't it hopeless to expect that we can do better regardless of whether we remember anything or not? And what if what we remember leads us to false analogies and misunderstandings? I prefer: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility."”

Errol Morris (1948) American filmmaker and writer

Or how about this: "Those who cannot condemn the past repeat it in order to remember it."
Source: The Grump (no. 1) http://www.errolmorris.com/content/grump/grump1.html

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Benjamin Graham book The Intelligent Investor

Source: The Intelligent Investor

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

This famous statement has produced many paraphrases and variants:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them.
Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
There is a similar quote by Edmund Burke (in Revolution in France) that often leads to misattribution: "People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors."
The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906), Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense
Source: The Life of Reason: Five Volumes in One
Context: 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.