The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.
Alvin TofflerRead
If we do not learn from history, we shall be compelled to relive it. True. But if we do not change the future, we shall be compelled to endure it. And that could be worse.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We must learn from the past to avoid repeating mistakes and proactively reshape our future.
This quote emphasizes the importance of learning from history to prevent making the same mistakes repeatedly. It also suggests that merely acknowledging past errors isn't enough; we must also take action to change and improve our future circumstances, as failing to do so could lead to even greater difficulties.
Themes
HistoryChangeFutureLearningMistakes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about leadership, one might say, 'As Alvin Toffler reminds us, if we do not learn from history, we shall be compelled to relive it.'
More from Alvin Toffler
All quotes →Any decent society must generate a feeling of community. Community offsets_x000D_ _x000D_ loneliness. It gives people a vitally necessary sense of belonging. Yet today_x000D_ _x000D_ the institutions on which community depends are crumbling in all the_x000D_ _x000D_ techno-societies. The result is a spreading plague of loneliness.
Alvin TofflerRead
Future shock is the disorientation that affects an individual, a corporation, or a country when he or it is overwhelmed by change and the prospect of change ... we are in collision with tomorrow.
Alvin TofflerRead
The Law of Raspberry Jam: the wider any culture is spread, the thinner it gets.
Alvin TofflerRead
If you don't have a strategy, you're part of someone else's strategy.
Alvin TofflerRead
To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke.
Alvin TofflerRead
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After winter comes the summer. After night comes the dawn. And after every storm, there comes clear, open skies.
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it' is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant or the scared. It's an excuse for inaction, a call to non-arms.
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Caught in a racial uproar, people make all sorts of promises to make amends. Whatever they do tends to be heavy on symbolism and light on lasting change.
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If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon future, but it will be bleak. However, if we plan the transition, we can have a world that supports robust communities of healthy, creative people and ecosystems with millions of other species.
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