Charles de Gaulle

A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.
Charles de Gaulle

A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
Charles de Gaulle

As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through gigantic trials, that the interest of life consisted in one day rendering her some signal service and that I would have the occasion to do so.
Charles de Gaulle

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.
Charles de Gaulle

China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
Charles de Gaulle

Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
Charles de Gaulle

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
Charles de Gaulle

Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
Charles de Gaulle

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
Charles de Gaulle

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.
Charles de Gaulle

For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
Charles de Gaulle

France cannot be France without greatness.
Charles de Gaulle

France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.
Charles de Gaulle

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles de Gaulle

Hearing Mass is the ceremony I most favor during my travels. Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
Charles de Gaulle

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?
Charles De Gaulle

I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.
Charles de Gaulle

I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro.
Charles de Gaulle

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

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.
Charles de Gaulle

I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.
Charles de Gaulle

I might have had trouble saving France in 1946 - I didn't have television then.
Charles de Gaulle

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

I was France.
Charles de Gaulle

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
Charles de Gaulle

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

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?
Charles de Gaulle

It is not tolerable, it is not possible, that from so much death, so much sacrifice and ruin, so much heroism, a greater and better humanity shall not emerge.
Charles de Gaulle

Never relinquish the initiative.
Charles de Gaulle

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

No nation has friends only interests.
Charles de Gaulle

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
Charles de Gaulle

Old age is a shipwreck.
Charles de Gaulle

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.
Charles de Gaulle

One cannot govern with 'buts'.
Charles de Gaulle

One does not arrest Voltaire.
Charles De Gaulle

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.
Charles de Gaulle

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

Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles de Gaulle

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
Charles de Gaulle

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
Charles de Gaulle

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
Charles de Gaulle

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
Charles de Gaulle

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.
Charles de Gaulle

The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.
Charles de Gaulle

The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.
Charles de Gaulle

The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
Charles de Gaulle

There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.
Charles de Gaulle

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
Charles de Gaulle

Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
Charles de Gaulle

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.
Charles de Gaulle

We are not here to laugh.
Charles De Gaulle

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

When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.
Charles de Gaulle

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.
Charles de Gaulle

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
Charles de Gaulle

You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
Charles de Gaulle

You'll live. Only the best get killed.
Charles de Gaulle