> 'Although history never repeats itself, we are now experiencing a strong return of little nations...`
I've never heard the phrase "history never repeats itself", I've only ever heard "history repeats itself."
Is this a saying that comes out of Italy, or am I just grossly uninformed?
"History never repeats itself, but it rhymes"
-Mark Twain
Split enz also has a popular song with "History never repeats. I tell myself before I go to sleep".
The other quote you're your probably thinking of
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
-George Santayana
So all in all I'd say you're right on the thrust of the generally popular quotes but not necessarily on their wording.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=history+never+...
Looks like "history repeats itself" is clearly the more frequent formulation.