Q0194

George Santayana

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Thinker George Santayana
School American Philosophy
Source The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, Ch. 12 (1905)
Theme Time
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Source context

This English passage is associated with The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, Ch. 12 (1905), within the tradition of American Philosophy. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of time, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In George Santayana's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: George Santayana. (n.d.). Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0194

MLA: George Santayana. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0194.

Chicago: George Santayana. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0194.

Same thinker

More from George Santayana

  1. Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.

All quotations by George Santayana

Same theme

More on time

  1. Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow.
  2. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  3. Claim yourself for yourself.
  4. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  5. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.

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