Quotes
- All my life I have had a certain idea of France.
- I have understood you!
- Long live free Quebec!
- France has no friends, only interests!
- Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, it is Europe, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the fate of the world.
- France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.
- At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.
- 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.
- 'A foreign military leader whose daring was feared by those who profited by it.' De Gaulle said that MacArthur's critics should 'pay deserved tribute to the legendary service of a great soldier'.
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- I am a man who belongs to no-one and who belongs to everyone.
- Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.
- No policy is worth anything outside of reality.
- How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?
- I am not ill. But do not worry, one day, I will certainly die.
- Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.
- The future does not belong to men...
- Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
- The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided.
- Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.
- France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.
- The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.
- Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.
- It is better to have a bad method than to have none.
- Character is the virtue of hard times.
- Anything can happen someday, even that an act conforming to honour and honesty can end up, at the end of the line, as a good political decision.
- The leader is always alone before bad fates.
- Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.
- The government has no propositions to make, but orders to give.
- France cannot be France without greatness.
- The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
- How do they expect a one-party system to work in a country which has over 246 different kinds of cheese?
- Always go for the highest position, it is generally the least crowded.
- The important things which were said to humanity were always simple things.
- Treaties are like roses and young girls; they last while they last.
- You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
- That's a tall order, indeed.
- To General Jacques Massu : Alors Massu, toujours aussi con ? (So, Massu, still that stupid?)
- I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
- There are three roads to ruin: by gambling, which is the quickest; through women, which is the most pleasurable; and through taking the advice of experts, which is the most certain.
- In the name of policy, change your friends.
- Within ten years we shall have whatever is necessary to kill 80 million Russians. Well I reckon one does not light-heartly attack people who are able to kill 80 million Russians, even if one can kill 800 million French, that is if there were 800 million French.
- Brazil is not a serious country.
- Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
- Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator ?
- Of course one can jump up and down yelling Europe ! Europe ! Europe ! But it amounts to nothing and it means nothing.
- They make me laugh with their 'Rubicon': 'Rubicon', 'Rubicon', what does it mean ?
charles de gaulle
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