A mark twain quote....?

Question

"History never repeats itself; at times it rhymes"

what do you think that means? specifically, the rhyming part?

i want to incorporate it with an essay i'm writing on the book 'a separate peace'

any ideas?

any help appreciated.

thanks in advance =]

Answer 1

It means that history never literally repeats itself, but sometimes it seems to be similar !

Answer 2

Because a rhyme is something that is similar to the first word but not the same.  It's the contrast between same and similar.

WW 1 and WW2 are similar in the main combatants and who one, but not the same.  There were some different countries and alliances in WW 1 than WW 2.  Some root causes were the same, some were very different.

Answer 3

The exact quote by Mark Twain was, "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

Yes, it means the same types of scenarios, events, and etc., recur in history, though no two could be identical.

Answer 4

Although historians say that history repeats itself so we should be able to learn from our mistakes, Twain is taking it literally. He points out that history never actually repeats itself down to every fact and idea. For instance, the Holocaust will never repeat itself to such an extent or horror. However, there have been massive genocides passing under the radar for years. Take Darfur and the Bosnian Genocide. How many of us could even locate Bosnia on a map or name the religion of the victims in Darfur? It is along the same lines as the Holocaust but it is not being dealt with in the same way because that's just not possible. We are hardly going to start digging trenches and bulldozing people over. Americans hardly ever do old-fashioned battle anymore.

Answer 5

History can never duplicate an exact event... of course there are trends in history that lead to beliefs that people should learn from the past (be it in power, socioeconomic situations, etc). "at times it rhymes" may mean that current events may resemble past events (such as a word rhyming with another... it is similar, but those two different words that rhyme, have completely different meanings), as do two different (yet, similar) events.