# What is that quote and who said it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 12, 1999, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287 "1999-12-12T22:23:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287/1 "1999-12-12T22:23:00Z")

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Help me out here… what was the specific quote… “What man learns from history is that man doesn’t learn from history” or something like that and who said it?

* * *

“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good  
things.” --Edgar Degas

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**Author:** ![J.Alora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@J.Alora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J.Alora)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287/2 "1999-12-12T22:25:00Z")

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I’ll eliminate one possibility right now:

It wasn’t me.

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**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287/3 "1999-12-12T22:42:00Z")

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Well your quote doesn’t make any sense to me, but it reminded me of this one:

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

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecccb3/32.png) [@Lord\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Jim)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287/4 "1999-12-12T23:05:00Z")

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Well, PCW’s quote makes sense to me, but I didn’t say it either, although I’ll be glad to take credit for it if you want.

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287/5 "1999-12-12T23:19:00Z")

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“The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” ~ Georg Wilhelm F. Hegel, according to [Favorite Quotes](http://www.osfunds.com/class/quotes.html)

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**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 1999, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-quote-and-who-said-it/5287/6 "1999-12-12T23:58:00Z")

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Thanks whitetho. I appreciate the research.