Quotations and Literature Forum

I heard a quote recently that was attributed to George Santayana but have been unable to verify that. Something like this; Every generation has to face barbarians. They are their children, and they must be made to become civilized. Help, anyone?

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience. `George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, (1905)

Thanks for the input. I had found this Santayana quote on the website and determined that it was different enough in purpose to cause me to search for another. I'm thinking that the person who quoted what I heard had attributed to the wrong person. The one I'm looking for sounded more like Will Rogers or Sam Clemens.