Here's the part of John Bolton's book that is worth reading

[Mike 03]

I'm going to save you $25, and the time you can never get back of having to slog through 570 pages of John Bolton congratulating himself, setting out in tedious detail every phone call and trivial thought, comparing himself favorably to every other person who appears in the book, and copiously quoting other people saying nice things about him.

It all boils down to this paragraph from page 77:

"When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have affected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the Sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

It's not by John Bolton.

He's quoting Winston Churchill.

—House of Commons, 2 May 1935. In a conference at Stresa, Britain, France and Italy had agreed to cooperate to maintain the independence of Austria. His fear was that this plan would be nullified by inertia. Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938. If only, Churchill was saying, these three powers had worked for peace and collective security earlier.

[MFGsunny]

1. Brilliant Churchill as ever. It's a keeper quote. Much obliged, Mike 03, for your generous act ...

... of sparing us the $25, and more importantly the pedantic recitation of said self-congratulatory trivia.

[panader0]

2. Thanks for the review.

[KatyMan]

3. I knew it wasn't Bolton's words when the quote mentioned

The "Sybilline books". Too high brow.