Forks and spoons have probably done more to reconcile people who cannot agree than guns and bombs ever did

All invention and progress comes from finding a link between two ideas that have never met.

The French have made conversation their claim to civilisation.

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.

The kind of conversation I like is one in which you are prepared to emerge a slightly different person.

One of the great ambitions is to discover the diversity of the world, to discover who inhabits the world.

The Renaissance… was based on a new idea of the importance of the individual. But this was a fragile foundation, because individuals depended on constant applause and admiration to sustain them. There is a shortage of applause in the world, and there is not enough respect to go around.