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?

Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.

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

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

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!

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

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