Theodore Zeldin quotes

Theodore Zeldin is a British historian, philosopher, and writer renowned for his work on emotions, relationships, and the history of everyday life. His books explore the nature of human conversation and understanding across cultures and eras. He has significantly influenced both academic thought and public discussions on how we connect with one another. Here are 63 of his quotes:

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

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

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

The past is what provides us with the building blocks. Our job today is to create new buildings out of them.

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 violent have been victorious for most of history because they kindled the fear with which everyone is born.

Theodore Zeldin

The French have made conversation their claim to civilisation.

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

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

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

Theodore Zeldin

Breaking accepted rules does bring people together.

Theodore Zeldin

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

Theodore Zeldin

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

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

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

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

No history of the world can be complete which does not mention Mary Helen Keller... whose overcoming of her blindness and deafness were arguably victories more important than those of Alexander the Great, because they have implications still for every living person.

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

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

Theodore Zeldin

The temptation before 1933 was to believe in Hitler as a savior, to believe in a national rebirth. The path to National Socialism led through a wasteland of personal fears, collective anxiety, and resentments. The temptation was to surrender oneself to a dictator, to believe in a miracle. Hitler evoked human will and divine providence. The religious-mystical element in National Socialism was uncannily appealing to unpolitical people, to unrealistic people at odds with their world and accustomed perhaps to the dream of heroic irrationalism. The temptation was to abandon oneself to national delirium- despite (or even because of) the threat of violence.

Theodore Zeldin

It takes a long time for people to recognize their soul-mates when they have too limited an idea of who they are themselves.

Theodore Zeldin