Charles De Gaulle Quotes & Sayings

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

It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese. — Charles De Gaulle

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. — Charles De Gaulle

It's better to have a bad plan then no plan at all. — Charles De Gaulle

Never relinquish the initiative. — Charles De Gaulle

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

We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us. — Charles De Gaulle

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages. — Charles De Gaulle

Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to ... dissipate one's strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one's thoughts. — Charles De Gaulle

I am not bad, thank you. But don't worry, one of these days I shall certainly die. — 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

These people really aim very badly. — Charles De Gaulle

One cannot govern with 'buts'. — Charles De Gaulle

I am a man who belongs to nobody and who belongs to everybody. — Charles De Gaulle

Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French. — Charles De Gaulle

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

Long live free Quebec! — Charles De Gaulle

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself — Charles De Gaulle

In war, the policy of least exertion always risks being paid for dearly. — Charles De Gaulle

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

At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure. — Charles De Gaulle

The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks. — 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

The cemeteries are full of indispensable men. — Charles De Gaulle

I am too poor to bow. — Charles De Gaulle

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

Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors. — Charles De Gaulle

France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war — Charles De Gaulle

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

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

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

They really are bad shots. — 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

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

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 evolution toward Communism is inevitable. — Charles De Gaulle

The cabinet has no propositions to make, but orders to give. — Charles De Gaulle

Always choose the most difficult way, there you will not meet competitors. — 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

I'm not at all embarrassed to be a revolutionary. — 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

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

Old age is a shipwreck. — Charles De Gaulle

Treaties you see are like girls and roses; they last while they last. — Charles De Gaulle

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese? — Charles De Gaulle

I am a man who belongs to no-one and who belongs to everyone. — Charles De Gaulle

All my life I have had a certain idea of France. — Charles De Gaulle

Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans. — 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

No nation has friends only interests. — Charles De Gaulle

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

Gentlemen, I am ready for the questions to my answers. — Charles De Gaulle

Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop. — Charles De Gaulle

Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak. — Charles De Gaulle

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

Nothing lasts until it is incessantly renewed — Charles De Gaulle

It is better to have a bad method than to have none. — Charles De Gaulle

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power. — Charles De Gaulle

One does not arrest Voltaire. — Charles De Gaulle

The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided. — Charles De Gaulle

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

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities. — 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

In the tumult of great events, solitude was what I hoped for. Now it is what I love. How is it possible to be contented with anything else when one has come face to face with history? — Charles De Gaulle

Men can have friends, statesmen cannot. — Charles De Gaulle

Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands. — Charles De Gaulle

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

For all of us Frenchmen, the guiding rule of our epoch is to be faithful to France. — Charles De Gaulle

My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial. — Charles De Gaulle

One must speak little. In action one must say nothing. The chief is the one who does not speak. — Charles De Gaulle

It's impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese. — Charles De Gaulle

Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents — Charles De Gaulle

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. — 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

I predict you will sink step by step into a bottomless quagmire, however much you spend in men and money. (On Vietnam War) — Charles De Gaulle

Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential. — Charles De Gaulle

Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one. — 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

No, I'm not talking about the Russians; I mean the Germans. In spite of everything, to have pushed so far! — Charles De Gaulle

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

I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself. — Charles De Gaulle

The future does not belong to men ... — Charles De Gaulle

The more I get to know men, the more I love dogs. — Charles De Gaulle

The Jews remain what they have been at all times: an elite people, self-confident and domineering. — Charles De Gaulle

I feel not a person but an instrument of destiny. — Charles De Gaulle

It so happens that the world is undergoing a transformation to which no change that has yet occurred can be compared, either in scope or in rapidity. — Charles De Gaulle

We are not here to laugh. — Charles De Gaulle

I myself have become a Gaullist only little by little. — Charles De Gaulle

Character is the virtue of hard times. — Charles De Gaulle

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese? — Charles De Gaulle

Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator ? — Charles De Gaulle

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

Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on Radio London. — Charles De Gaulle

France cannot be France without greatness. — Charles De Gaulle

No policy is worth anything outside of reality. — Charles De Gaulle

The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times. — Charles De Gaulle

The leader is always alone before bad fates. — Charles De Gaulle