Frank Rich Quotes

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

I think history is just so cyclical.

I am appalled by the notion of cultural wars.

It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

I'm a storyteller; that is what I do. And I'm particularly interested in history; and in history of a certain era. But what is interesting for me is how many, how many things you see repeated.

The more you read about history, the more you realize that there is nothing new under the sun.

The Republican Party has more cultural conflicts than the Hapsburg Empire.

History goes in cycles.

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

History that repeats itself turns to farce. Farce that repeats itself turns to history.

History, we know, is apt to repeat itself.

Conflicts which have divided the Justices always mirror a conflict which pervades society.

It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.

From my point of view, the Dreyfus affair is most interesting because it was sparked by a single cause celebre. Just one court case - one disputed trial - plunged an entire country into an angry debate, creating unresolvable divisions between people who had previously not known that they disagreed with one another.

We now live in a very polarized nation, divided not between Republicans and Democrats but between those who want to defend our liberties and those who want to defend politically correct stupidities.

It seems to me that the time for subtlety in our American life has passed.

History repeats itself. So you might wanna pay attention.

Sometimes history repeats itself. And sometimes it doesn't.

We just feel like history repeats itself. You ain't never going to see nothing brand new; you're only going to see when records are broken. And we're here to just set records and set trends and follow the footsteps that have been shown to us.

Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.

If history has a habit of repeating itself, doesn't someone have to stay behind to shout out a warning?

The novelties of one generation are only the resuscitated fashions of the generation before last.

It suddenly occurred to me that every move on the chessboard is old and has been played by somebody at some time. Maybe our own history has been played out by somebody at some time, and we just move our pieces about in the same moves to strike in the same way as people have always done.

History, we know, is apt to repeat itself, and to foist very old incidents upon us with only a slight change of costume.