From The Quotable Mises — surrounding passage

Planning for Freedom , p. 170 There is no such thing as a nonhistorical analysis of the present state of affairs. Theory and History , p. 287 The mere fact that an event happened in a distant country and a remote age does not in itself prove that it has no bearing on the present. Theory and History , p. 290 Again and again, the early historians of capitalism have—one can hardly use a milder word—falsified history. Economic Policy , p. 7

“History can tell us what happened in the past. But it cannot assert that it must happen again in the future.”

Human Action , p. 546; p. 549 A historian’s achievement consists in presenting the past in a new perspective of understanding. Theory and History , p. 290 History looks backward into the past, but the lesson it teaches concerns things to come. It does not teach indolent quietism; it rouses man to emulate the deeds of earlier generations. Theory and History , p. 294 Neither as judges allotting praise and blame nor as avengers seeking out the guilty should we face the past.