history repeats itself

Proverb

history repeats itself

1. Things that have happened in the past will or tend to happen again in one way or another.
   • If it be true that history repeats itself, then assuredly a narrative of domestic trials, of political emergencies, and of religious animosities can never be out of date, since men and women still bear in their hearts, passions as vindictive, a patriotism as ardent, and, let us hope, a piety as...1871, The Edinburgh review, or Critical Journal, →OCLC, page 486
   • If history repeats itself, so does religious experience. As the story of the Church unfolds, the individual finds himself as part of the providential purpose of God within the realm in which the living God reigns.1962, Kendig Brubaker Cully, Confirmation: History, Doctrine, and Practice, →OCLC, page 152