Charles De Gaulle Quotes
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.
History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads.
We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.
You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
No, I'm not talking about the Russians; I mean the Germans. In spite of everything, to have pushed so far!
It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.
Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
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.
At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.
A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.
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.
I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.
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.
The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.
Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
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.
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.
The Jews remain what they have been at all times: an elite people, self-confident and domineering.
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.
The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.