A Quote by Mark Twain

History never repeats itself; at best it sometimes rhymes.

Mark Twain

Quote Topics

Best History Itself Never Repeats Rhymes Sometimes

Quote Author

Mark Twain
American - Writer
November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910

"The Universe repeats itself, with the possible exception of history." Of all earthly studies history is the only one that does not repeat itself. ... Astronomy repeats itself; botany repeats itself; trigonometry repeats itself; mechanics repeats itself; compound long division repeats itself. Every sum if worked out in the same way at any time will bring out the same answer. ... A great many moderns say that history is a science; if so it occupies a solitary and splendid elevation among the sciences; it is the only science the conclusions of which are always wrong.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

"History repeats itself" and "History never repeats itself" are about equally true ... We never know enough about the infinitely complex circumstances of any past event to prophesy the future by analogy.

G. M. Trevelyan

History repeats itself and History never repeats itself are about equally true.

G. M. Trevelyan

I'm a strong believer that you can build great companies in time of both greed and fear. But you have to be paying attention and operating under the right assumptions. You don't have to believe history repeats itself, but you should accept that history rhymes.