Charles de Gaulle's Quotes

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

We are not here to laugh.

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

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

Old age is a shipwreck.

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.

You'll live. Only the best get killed.

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

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

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

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

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