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 of the Engadine. It is false to say that history cannot be foretold. Numberless times this has been done. If the future offered no opening to prophecy, it could not be understood when fulfilled in the present and on the point of falling back into the past. The idea that the historian is on the reverse side a prophet, sums up the whole philosophy of history, It is true that it is only possible to anticipate the general structure of the future, but that is all that we in truth understand of the past or of the present. . Ortega Y Gasset
About This Quote

The destructive force of the human race makes it impossible to know exactly what will happen in the future. The idea that history has a certain structure, however, is a fact that can be determined. It is possible to predict how events will unfold from today forward. The idea that history cannot be foretold is not true, but it is true to say that no one can ever accurately predict exactly what will happen in the future. No matter how much you try, you cannot get a crystal ball and see the future.

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