Ecclesiastes 1:9New International Version

“What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun.”

We don’t want to repeat history. We want to learn from it instead.

“Meanwhile, the Revolution followed its own course. No sooner did the head of this monster make its appearance, than its peculiar and terrifying character emerged. It first destroyed the political and then the civil institutions; it changed the laws and then the customs, procedures and even the language. After wrecking the fabric of government, it undermined the foundations of society and seemed, in essence, to aim at challenging God himself.” 

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE The Ancien Régime
and the French Revolution Translated and edited by GERALD BEVAN 

First published 1856