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The reason to understand history is not to avoid the mistakes of history—because some fool will make those mistakes for you. Some maniac will start a war, and some other maniac will drop an atom bomb, and you'll be the poor bastard who gets to drop the bomb or be hit by it.
No, you understand history so you can understand yourself.

— Jack Cady Kilroy Was Here (1996)

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More quotes by Jack Cady

Men build all kinds of worlds in order to defeat fear and loneliness.

The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993)

We press the enemy backward with memories, with the power of history, with scenes of sense and order.

Kilroy Was Here (1996)

“The rules would seem to indicate,” I told him, “that if you start a war you really can’t complain when people drop bombs on you.”

Kilroy Was Here (1996)

Her eyes held that long-distance prairie look, a look knowing wind and fire and hard times, stuff that either breaks people or leaves them wise.

The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993)

The world was changing, and it wouldn’t change back.

The Night We Buried Road Dog (1993)

All Jack Cady quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jack Cady (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.