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.

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

What do you take me for, an idiot?

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.

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.

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

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