Why to know your history

I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis’ book The Weight of Glory. Today I ran across one of those quotes that’s quotable enough to add to my Facebook “Favorite Quotations.” It’s about the importance of knowing history.

A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village; the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.