Theodore Zeldin Quotes
Only when people learn to converse will they begin to be equal.
Zeldin, Theodore. Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives. Harvill Press, 1998.
As hard as it is for us to imagine today, while her husband was President of the United States, the First Lady wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column every single day with politics frequently the subject. While she usually agreed with the President, there were occasions where they seemed to not see things exactly the same. She tended to be more liberal than he. However, there were those who believed that when she criticized politicians, it was with FDR’s knowledge and blessing and she sometimes did his “dirty work.” Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential people in the country—certainly more-so than any First Lady before and since.
This quotation many think is the greatest statement of political equality ever written. Interestingly is also lays an obligation on all people for all others. It was written by a privileged nobleman, a Baron, who was instrumental philosophically and politically in establishing the Batavia Republic in Holland.
Theodore Zeldin CBE is an Oxford scholar and thinker whose books have searched for answers to three questions. Where can a person look to find more inspiring ways of spending each day and each year? What ambitions remain unexplored, beyond happiness, prosperity, faith, love, technology or therapy? What role could there be for individuals with independent minds, or who feel isolated or different, or misfits? Each of Zeldin's books illuminates from a different angle what people can do today that they could not in previous centuries.
