Remember the (alleged) quote of Arnold Toynbee in the 1919 Paris episode?

DaFedora

New member
I have been rethinking a particular quote rather often, since I have dealt with the person and works of historian Arnold Toynbee 2 years ago for the subject 'Historiography: 20 centuries of historic writing' (about 400 authors to know by heart if I recall correctly :p ) in college...

In the Paris May 1919 episode, where Indy attends the conference like the 'diplomatic aftermath' of WWI and in which both French and English appeal to severely penalize the Gemans as near-war criminals, Indy is met with Arnold Toynbee who conveys his personal assessment and prediction of what will come if the parties decide to cripple Germany's politics and economy with outrageously high retributions.
He shares the wisdom with Indy that "All who forget the lessons of History, are doomed to repeat it."

The same night, Indy paraphrases this line as he writes it down in his journal.
I've always thought it to be one of Toynbee's genuine quotes, yet I accidentally stumbled across the actual source Toynbee might have quoted.

I believe it was George Santayana who first coined the phrase, however in a slightly different way:
"Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."

It stems from Santayana's Reason in Common Sense, first volume of his series named The Life of Reason, written between 1905-1906. That's a good 12 years before the end of WW I and even at least eight years before its outbreak. If Toynbee would have come up with this quote during WWI, it's very well possible he has read Santayana... or good ol' George Lucas alledged these words in the mouth of Toynbee the historian, disregarding the fact that they don't origin from him but from Santayana...

Episode list: http://www.innermind.com/youngindy/info/yijepg1.htm#YIJEP24
Info on Santayana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana

Someone do correct me if I'm mistaken.
 

Junior Jones

New member
You could very well be right. I've seen so many variations of that quote from so many different sources that I assumed it would not be possible to identify the original source. Even in the Young Indy episode I assumed that Toynbee was quoting someone else.
 
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