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.

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

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

I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.

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.

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