Quotes by Theodore Zeldin

The brain is full of lonely ideas, begging you to make some sense of them, to recognize them as interesting. The lazy brain just files them away in old pigeonholes, like a bureaucrat who wants an easy life. The lively brain picks and chooses and creates new works of art out of ideas.

I particularly value conversations which are meetings on the borderline of what I understand and what I dont, with people who are different from myself.

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

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.

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

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

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