Charles De Gaulle Quotes

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?

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

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.

Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.

Betting against gold is the same as betting on governments. He who bets on governments and government money bets against 6,000 years of recorded human history.

Never relinquish the initiative.

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.

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

China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.

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

I myself have become a Gaullist only little by little.

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?

Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.

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

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

Old France, weighed down with history, prostrated by wars and revolutions, endlessly vacillating from greatness to decline, but revived, century after century, by the genius of renewal!

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

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

Old age is a shipwreck.

I cannot prevent the French from being French

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

What do you take me for, an idiot?

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

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

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

Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.

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.

Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that's the way he shows his passion for equality

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

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

A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.

The evolution toward Communism is inevitable.

France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.

Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

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

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.

The cabinet has no propositions to make, but orders to give.

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

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

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.

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?