Charles de Gaulle Quotes

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?

Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents

Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to . . . dissipate one's strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one's thoughts.

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

He who laughs last didn't get the joke.

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.

Soyons fermes, purs et fidèles ; au bout de nos peines, il y a la plus grande gloire du monde, celle des hommes qui n'ont pas cédé. [Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.]

War stirs in men's hearts the mud of their worst instincts. It puts a premium on violence, nourishes hatred, and gives free rein to cupidity. It crushes the weak, exalts the unworthy, and bolsters tyranny .. .Time and time again it has destroyed all ordered living, devastated hope, and put the prophets to death.

Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.

When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads.

We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.

No, I'm not talking about the Russians; I mean the Germans. In spite of everything, to have pushed so far!

It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.

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.

Long live free Quebec!

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself.

At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.

When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.

One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.

The future does not belong to men.

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.

Character is the virtue of hard times.

France has no friends, only interests.

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

It is not tolerable, it is not possible, that from so much death, so much sacrifice and ruin, so much heroism, a greater and better humanity shall not emerge.

You'll live. Only the best get killed.

France cannot be France without greatness.

The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.

Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.

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.

You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.

Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.

No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.

The Jews remain what they have been at all times: an elite people, self-confident and domineering.

The leader is always alone before bad fates.

Gentlemen, I am ready for the questions to my answers.