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.

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.

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.

Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.

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

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

The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.