Historical knowledge is a technique of the first order to preserve and continue a civilisation already advanced. Not that it affords positive solutions to the new aspect of vital conditions- life is always different from what it was- but that it prevents us committing the ingenuous mistakes of other times. But if, in addition to being old and, therefore, beginning to find life difficult, you have lost the memory of the past, and do not profit by experience, then everything turns to disadvantage. Well, it is my belief that this is the situation of Europe. The most "cultured" people to-day are suffering from incredible ignorance of history. Ortega Y Gasset
About This Quote

This quote is a wonderful one that captures the importance of history and the passivity of ignorance. It is important for people to learn from the past because we never know what will happen in the future. History can show us many things and provide us with information that will help us make better decisions in the future. The quote above also makes an interesting point about how history can be both a blessing and curse. We are not able to learn from the mistakes of the past because so much time has passed since those events took place, but on the other hand there are many aspects of history that are easily forgotten, which can be harmful to our culture, as was mentioned in this quote.

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More Quotes By Ortega Y Gasset
  1. The majority of men have no opinions, and these have to be pumped into them from outside, like lubricants into machinery. Hence it is necessary that some mind or other should hold and exercise authority, so that the people without opinions- the majority- can start...
  2. A concrete example of this mechanism is found in one of the most alarming phenomena of the last thirty years: the enormous increase in the police force of all countries. The increase of population has inevitably rendered it necessary. However accustomed we may be to...
  3. Historical knowledge is a technique of the first order to preserve and continue a civilisation already advanced. Not that it affords positive solutions to the new aspect of vital conditions- life is always different from what it was- but that it prevents us committing the...
  4. The masses are advancing, " said Hegel in apocalyptic fashion. "Without some new spiritual influence, our age, which is a revolutionary age, will produce a catastrophe, " was the pronouncement of Comte. "I see the flood-tide of nihilism rising, " shrieked Nietzsche from a crag...
  5. To spoil means to put no limit on caprice, to give one the impression that everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations. The young child exposed to this regime has no experience of its own limits. By reason of the removal...
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