Quotes By Charles De Gaulle

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

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.

No nation has friends only interests.

One cannot govern with 'buts'.

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

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

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

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

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

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

Old age is a shipwreck.

You'll live. Only the best get killed.

France cannot be France without greatness.

One does not arrest Voltaire.

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

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

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

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.

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

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

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

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.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

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

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

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.

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.

China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.

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

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