The kind of conversation I like is one in which you are prepared to emerge a slightly different person. Theodore Zeldin More Quotes by Theodore Zeldin More Quotes From 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. Theodore Zeldin begging-you lonely art Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards. Theodore Zeldin learning memories knowledge When will we make the same breakthroughs in the way we treat each other as we have made in technology? Theodore Zeldin learning technology knowledge Art is, nowadays, our new religion and museums are our cathedrals. Theodore Zeldin cathedrals museums art Only when people learn to converse will they begin to be equal. Theodore Zeldin converses equal people A dream is what makes people love life even when it is painful. Theodore Zeldin loving-life love-life dream 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 mistake jobs mean 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 enigma mystery persons The past is what provides us with the building blocks. Our job today is to create new buildings out of them. Theodore Zeldin block jobs past All invention and progress comes from finding a link between two ideas that have never met. Theodore Zeldin progress two ideas We should strive to be employed in such a way that we don't realize that what we're doing is work. Theodore Zeldin strive realizing way Change the way you think, and you are halfway to changing the world. Theodore Zeldin way world thinking I think the hero in our generation is not the individual but the pair, two people who together add up to more than they are apart. Theodore Zeldin hero two thinking Everything I am going to say to you is the child of a conversation. [...] That is the aspect of conversation that particularly excites me: how conversation changes the way you see the world, and even changes the world. Theodore Zeldin children way world The violent have been victorious for most of history because they kindled the fear with which everyone is born. Theodore Zeldin violent has-beens born Forks and spoons have probably done more to reconcile people who cannot agree than guns and bombs ever did Theodore Zeldin bombs gun people 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 laughter order people 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 mean ideas needs What we make of people, and what we see in the mirror when we look at ourselves, depends on what we know of the world, what we believe to be possible, what memories we have, and whether our loyalties are to the past, the present or the future. Theodore Zeldin loyalty memories life 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 kind organization people
