Charles De Gaulle Biography
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Charles De Gaulle Famous Quotes

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

Charles De Gaulle Biography

Charles De Gaulle Famous Quotes