Why Study History?

I'm currently reading Livy's Early History of Rome, and I love his introduction about the study of history. Here is a great quote:

"The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid."