“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme rather nicely.”
That quip has often been attributed to Mark Twain. I’ve never been able to verify the attribution, but it does sound like him. I’m inclined to pair it with Santayana’s observation: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” A gloss on that observation: “Those who know the past are condemned to watch others unwittingly repeat the avoidable errors of the past.”
