1
George Santayana
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
2
David C. McCullough
History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.
3
George Wilhelm Hegel
What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles.
4
Gerda Lerner
We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.
5
Karl Marx
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
To show but a few,
I especially like no. 3.