Theodore Zeldin Quotes

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Theodore Zeldin

Profession : Philosopher

Birth : August 22, 1933

Judaism is not a dogmatic religion but one which loves debate, in which scholarship has played a big part. Scholars never agree about anything.

Theodore Zeldin

I'm constantly astounded by the way people talk so openly to someone they don't know. They clarify in their own minds what is important to them, discover another person has similar problems, and create trust and even a friendship.

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

Change the way you think, and you are already halfway to changing the world.

Theodore Zeldin

When two people talk with mutual respect and listen with a real interest in understanding another point of view, when they try to put themselves in the place of another, to get inside their skin, they change the world, even if it is only by a minute amount, because they are establishing equality between two human beings.

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

Breaking accepted rules does bring people together.

Theodore Zeldin

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

Theodore Zeldin

I'm amazed at the number of young women who tell me they can't find men to talk to them.

Theodore Zeldin

In every life there is an element of victory over fear, which needs to be searched for, though it may be a false victory.

Theodore Zeldin

The more education you do, the less you are capable of doing.

Theodore Zeldin

The world is... often terrifying, disgusting and tragic, but it is also beautiful. I should like to know how exactly each person would make it a tiny bit less disgusting and a tiny bit more beautiful.

Theodore Zeldin

I think it's impossible to predict the future but it is possible to look at the past and see how one can do differently from what one's ancestors have done and learn from their mistakes, and one can see how even though there are enormous forces which stop one doing what one wants to, there are little holes in which the individual can do something.

Theodore Zeldin

So much of what passes for conversation today is degraded. It's either about one-upmanship, or dreary trivia. Even the cut and thrust of wit and bons mots is a form of bedazzlement designed to stop conversations dead rather than broaden them.

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

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

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

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

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

Theodore Zeldin