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

George Santayana's famous line, from his 1905 book on reason, argues that progress depends on retaining the lessons of experience rather than greeting each new situation as if it had no precedent. Without memory, Santayana warned, a person, or a civilization, is stuck relearning the same mistakes from zero.

— George Santayana, The Life of Reason — 1905