Charles de Gaulle Quotes

Charles de Gaulle delivers lofty, decisive reflections on politics and power, perfect for anyone seeking bold ideas.

67 quotes

1. All my life I have had a certain idea of France.

2. I have understood you!

3. Long live free Quebec!

4. France has no friends, only interests!

5. Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, it is Europe, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the fate of the world.

6. France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.

7. At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.

8. Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.

9. 'A foreign military leader whose daring was feared by those who profited by it.' De Gaulle said that MacArthur's critics should 'pay deserved tribute to the legendary service of a great soldier'.

10. I am a man who belongs to no-one and who belongs to everyone.

11. Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

12. No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

13. How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?

14. I am not ill. But do not worry, one day, I will certainly die.

15. Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.

16. The future does not belong to men...

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

18. The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided.

19. Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.

20. France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.

21. The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.

22. Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

23. It is better to have a bad method than to have none.

24. Character is the virtue of hard times.

25. Anything can happen someday, even that an act conforming to honour and honesty can end up, at the end of the line, as a good political decision.

26. The leader is always alone before bad fates.

27. Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.

28. The government has no propositions to make, but orders to give.

29. France cannot be France without greatness.

30. The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

31. How do they expect a one-party system to work in a country which has over 246 different kinds of cheese?

32. Always go for the highest position, it is generally the least crowded.

33. The important things which were said to humanity were always simple things.

34. Treaties are like roses and young girls; they last while they last.

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

36. That's a tall order, indeed.

37. To General Jacques Massu : Alors Massu, toujours aussi con ? (So, Massu, still that stupid?)

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

39. There are three roads to ruin: by gambling, which is the quickest; through women, which is the most pleasurable; and through taking the advice of experts, which is the most certain.

40. In the name of policy, change your friends.

41. Within ten years we shall have whatever is necessary to kill 80 million Russians. Well I reckon one does not light-heartly attack people who are able to kill 80 million Russians, even if one can kill 800 million French, that is if there were 800 million French.

42. Brazil is not a serious country.

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

44. Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator ?

45. Of course one can jump up and down yelling Europe ! Europe ! Europe ! But it amounts to nothing and it means nothing.

46. They make me laugh with their 'Rubicon': 'Rubicon', 'Rubicon', what does it mean ?

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

48. We are not here to laugh.

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

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

51. Today we are crushed by the sheer weight of the mechanized forces hurled against us, but we can still look to the future in which even greater mechanized forces will bring us victory. Therein lies the destiny of the world.

52. Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.

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

54. Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

55. 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.

56. One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

57. What do you take me for, an idiot?

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

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

60. You'll live. Only the best get killed.

61. It's better to have a bad plan then no plan at all.

62. And now she is the same as everyone else.

63. I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Métro.

64. These people really aim very badly.

65. Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.

66. He who laughs last didn't get the joke.

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