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

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.

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.

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

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

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself

I cannot prevent the French from being French