Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Stein finds comfort in the idea that history repeats, implying predictability.
In plain terms
History repeats itself, which can be comforting.
What can you take from it?
Patterns in history can provide reassurance.

Where it applies

  • historical study
  • current events analysis

Putting it to work

  • track historical cycles
  • contextualize current events

Questions to consider

  • What patterns do you see repeating in history?
  • Does knowing history repeats change how you view the present?

Another view

History repeats with variations, not exact copies.

More from Gertrude Stein

  1. Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.

    Permalink to quote #101
  2. War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost.

    Permalink to quote #103
  3. A nice war is a war where everybody who is heroic is a hero, and everybody more or less is a hero in a nice war. Now this war is not at all a nice war.

    Permalink to quote #100

Related quotes

  1. The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

    Mark TwainMark Twain quote #149
  2. 'You see, when you're middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history can never champion…

    Douglas CouplandDouglas Coupland quote #1
  3. Cum in omni fere litterarum studio dulce laboris lenimen et summum doloris solamen dum uiuitur insitum considerem, tum delectabilius et maioris praerogatiua cl…

    Henry of HuntingdonHenry of Huntingdon quote #1