Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans.

Old age is a shipwreck.

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?

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 cannot prevent the French from being French

I feel not a person but an instrument of destiny.

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