Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana coined this line in the early 20th century while reflecting on the role of memory and historical consciousness in human progress. It appears in the first volume of his philosophical work The Life of Reason (1905), in a discussion of how experience is preserved (or lost) through individual and collective memory. Writing amid rapid industrial, social, and political change, Santayana argued that reason depends on learning from what has already happened; without the discipline of remembering, societies and individuals drift into recurring errors. The sentence has since been widely quoted in political rhetoric, education, and public history as a warning about the costs of historical amnesia.

Santayana’s point is not that history repeats mechanically, but that ignorance of prior experience makes repetition of mistakes more likely. “Remember” implies more than recalling facts; it suggests assimilating lessons—recognizing patterns, causes, and consequences—so that judgment improves. The “condemned” phrasing underscores a kind of self-imposed fate: without memory, people lose the ability to choose differently. The aphorism also carries a moral and civic implication: communities need institutions of remembrance (education, archives, public debate) to sustain rational action. In Santayana’s broader philosophy, memory is a prerequisite for reason, and reason is the means by which freedom becomes possible.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfill it.”