“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”
— Marcus Cicero
Cicero, Orator, section 120, written in 46 BCE. He says memory of earlier ages gives weight and judgment to speech.
I wrote that after years in courts, in the Senate, in exile, and in grief. I had watched Rome repeat old mistakes because men wanted power without memory. Read backward as well as forward. Learn the names, dates, and failures that came before you. A grown mind does not begin with itself.