Theodore Zeldin Quotes

The great thing about marriage is that it creates trust, the most precious of things.

- Theodore Zeldin

Each person is an enigma. You're a puzzle not only to yourself but also to everyone else, and the great mystery of our time is how we penetrate this puzzle.

- Theodore Zeldin

People are going to be living quite soon for 100 years. Our idea of how a family works no longer applies. It's no good saying you're going to have children for 15 years and then you're going to retire and have hobbies, because you've got 40 more years to go after 60 and you're in good health until 90 or something.

- Theodore Zeldin

We are already seeing the creation of a new kind of network based on friendships: Startups, which are often founded by friends, are the beginning of something that could reshape social relations.

- Theodore Zeldin

The French have made conversation their claim to civilisation.

- Theodore Zeldin

People in this world of superficial communication find themselves isolated and lonely and have difficult in talking about personal things that really matter to them.

- Theodore Zeldin

The British have turned their sense of humour into a national virtue. It is odd, because through much of history, humour has been considered cheap, and laughter something for the lower orders. But British aristocrats didn't care a damn about what people thought of them, so they made humour acceptable.

- Theodore Zeldin

We should abolish 'work.' By that I mean abolishing the distinction between work and leisure, one of the greatest mistakes of the last century, one that enables employers to keep workers in lousy jobs by granting them some leisure time.

- Theodore Zeldin

We should strive to be employed in such a way that we don't realize that what we're doing is work.

- Theodore Zeldin

Conversation creates a new kind of network within organizations. Current networks are used for competitive advantage, but conversation is focused on encouraging people to realize their potential.

- Theodore Zeldin

A dream is what makes people love life even when it is painful.

- Theodore Zeldin

We imagine that human nature doesn't change. We like to say that but I don't think it's true because we have, in the course of the centuries, altered ourselves.

- Theodore Zeldin

The English reputation for humour is a way by which people avoid revealing themselves and have superficial relationships, so that you can engage in banter without making yourself vulnerable.

- Theodore Zeldin

Families have become models for public life, constructing friendships between individuals of different temperaments, ambitions and ages, even if they are often unsuccessful. People now want, above all, appreciation of their uniqueness.

- Theodore Zeldin

The institution of marriage, if you look at it over many centuries, has come and gone.

- Theodore Zeldin

To idolise a person means you don't get to know them, and the idea that you can become one is a myth, and it also means that you don't need to talk to one another because you're the same person.

- Theodore Zeldin

Never before have humans been so ambitious, have they thought that they could be much more than their parents were.

- Theodore Zeldin

Breaking accepted rules does bring people together.

- Theodore Zeldin

One of the great ambitions is to discover the diversity of the world, to discover who inhabits the world.

- Theodore Zeldin