Q0586
“The past resembles the future more than one drop of water another.” — Ibn Khaldun (Muqaddimah (Rosenthal))
Verified English quotation. Primary source: Muqaddimah (Rosenthal). Theme: time.
English
The past resembles the future more than one drop of water another.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to Muqaddimah (Rosenthal) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) served courts across the Maghrib and Egypt before composing the Muqaddimah as a prolegomenon to his universal history. Drawing on political experience, he treated history as a science of social causes rather than a chronicle of wonders.
How to read this passage
Is time a river, a dimension, or a structure of consciousness? Augustine, Bergson, and modern metaphysics offer rival pictures while ethics asks how finite time should be spent. This passage enters that discussion through time, order, knowledge.
Concepts in this quote
- Time
- Philosophy of time asks what tense and duration are—and how memory, death, and history shape a human life.
- Order
- Order names cosmos, ritual, law, and the patterned stability that makes shared life possible—or oppressive.
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Ibn Khaldun. (n.d.). The past resembles the future more than one drop of water another. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0586
MLA: Ibn Khaldun. “The past resembles the future more than one….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0586.
Chicago: Ibn Khaldun. “The past resembles the future more than one….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0586.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “The past resembles the future more than one…”?
The passage is attributed to Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah (Rosenthal). The archive attributes this English wording to Muqaddimah (Rosenthal) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Ibn Khaldun mean by time?
Is time a river, a dimension, or a structure of consciousness? Augustine, Bergson, and modern metaphysics offer rival pictures while ethics asks how finite time should be spent. This passage enters that discussion through time, order, knowledge.