What is the most important lesson that you have learned from history?

Answer 1

The greatest lesson I have learned from history is the following Latin saying "quam parva sapientia mundus regitur" (which means in English: "with how little wisdom our world is ruled").

I learned that lesson from reading what happened to Edmund Burke (1729-97), the great British statesman and political theorist:

When Edmund Burke visited Ireland in about 1760, he saw the people living under wretched conditions:

"The penal laws against the Catholics, the iniquitous restrictions on Irish trade and industry, the selfish factiousness of the Parliament, the jobbery and corruption of administration, the absenteeism of the landlords, and all the other too familiar elements of that mischievous and fatal system, were then in full force."

Thus, he learnt the "eternal lesson, that awaits all who penetrate, behind the scenes of government, quam parva sapientia mundus regitur [with how little wisdom our world is ruled]."

Answer 2

That the vast majority of people are usually wrong, easily led, underinformed even by the standards of their time/place and would rather have easy answers than actually think.

Wonderful people and terrible people come from every socioeconomic class in every place and the majority of both will never be known.

Governments and religions and other major human institutions are by definition corrupt.

The people condemning sex are the ones with the weirdest grossest sex lives.

Answer 3

the most important thing that i've learned from history is that in war... there are no sure winners but there are sure losers... yes, i know that it's a cliche.... but it's true... so many people have died because they have been blinded by their leaders and over the centuries it has been repeated over and over again... maybe those who influence the decisions that we make now are not in the form of medieval knights and kings... today it's the media and the White house.

Answer 4

History, as we are taught of it today, is a gross exaggeration of distorted facts, written to glorify cowards, shysters and tyrants - who mostly won their 'wars' by devious and dishonest means !
...Their 'story' was recorded by scribes, whose livelihoods and lives solely depended upon their masters' whims - to please their rulers !
So, the most important lesson that I have learned from a study of history, is that it should be taken with a bucketful of salt - for a spoon will not be enough !

Answer 5

After I read the Malleus Maleficarum I understand why 600 years later the Catholic Church is still opposed to abortion.

Answer 6

Working is the way for great civilization for progress like many civilizations such as Arabic, Chinese, Rome, Spanish-Portuguese in south America , British, french civilizations..

Answer 7

When the youth of a nation begin blindly accepting the truths of their elders, society starts to stagnate and die.

Answer 8

Humans don't change in any important ways.

Answer 9

1-history has frightening habit of repeating itself cuz history makers never learn from it.
2-truth lies in future's hands.

Answer 10

Never make the same mistake twice.

There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."- George W. Bush