Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and caution. We have to transform our old France into a new country and marry it to its time.
Charles De Gaulle
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Charles De Gaulle quotes
Old age is a shipwreck.
My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial.
I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.
How can you be expected to govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese?
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.
As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through gigantic trials, that the interest of life consisted in one day rendering her some signal service and that I would have the occasion to do so.
Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.
China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.
For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
France cannot be France without greatness.
France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war.
Hearing Mass is the ceremony I most favor during my travels. Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?
How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?
How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty six varieties of cheese?
I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.
I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Métro.
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.
I might have had trouble saving France in 1946-I didn't have television then.
I predict you will sink step by step into a bottomless quagmire, however much you spend in men and money.
I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.
I was France.
In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History?
No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.
Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
Now I shall return to my village and there will remain at the disposition of the nation.
Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and caution. We have to transform our old France into a new country and marry it to its time.
One cannot govern with 'buts'.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.
The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.
The national task that had been incumbent upon me for 18 years is hereby confirmed.
The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.
The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.
To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.
When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.
You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.
You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
You'll live. Only the best get killed.
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