Charles de Gaulle Quotes

Old age is a shipwreck.

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

Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

They really are bad shots.

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

I cannot prevent the French from being French

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

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

What do you take me for, an idiot?

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

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.

Never relinquish the initiative.

Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that's the way he shows his passion for equality

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

One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

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

Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors.

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

Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.

Only peril can bring the French together. One can't impose unity out of the blue on a country that has 265 different kinds of cheese.

I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Métro.

I wouldn't mind dying for France, but not for Air France.

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.

It is better to have a bad method than to have none.

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.

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

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

Old France, weighed down with history, prostrated by wars and revolutions, endlessly vacillating from greatness to decline, but revived, century after century, by the genius of renewal!

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

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

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

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

There can be no other criterion, no other standard than gold. Yes, gold which never changes, which can be shaped into ingots, bars, coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence.

For all of us Frenchmen, the guiding rule of our epoch is to be faithful to France.

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

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.

I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.

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

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

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

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

Today we are crushed by the sheer weight of the mechanized forces hurled against us, but we can still look to the future in which even greater mechanized forces will bring us victory. Therein lies the destiny of the world.

Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.

There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?

I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.

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

I feel not a person but an instrument of destiny.