Charles De Gaulle Quotes

No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

I feel not a person but an instrument of destiny.

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

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

I wouldn't mind dying for France, but not for Air France.

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

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

Long live Montreal, Long live Quebec! Long live Free Quebec!

One does not arrest Voltaire.

In war, the policy of least exertion always risks being paid for dearly.

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

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

One cannot govern with 'buts'.

These people really aim very badly.

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

The cemetery is filled with indispensable men.

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

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

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

They really are bad shots.

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

France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war

Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action of one alone.

How can you be expected to govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese?

Faced with crisis the man of character falls back on himself.

Before such a prodigious career judgement is torn between blame and admiration.

How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?

I respect only those who resist me but cannot tolerate them.

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

Since a politician never believes what he says he is surprised when others believe him.

In order to become the master the politician poses as the servant.

The better I get to know men the more I find myself loving dogs.

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.

I was France.

The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.