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.

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?

Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents

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

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

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

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

He who laughs last didn't get the joke.

It is fatal to enter an war without the will to win it.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

It was a rural upbringing by the seaside. A real quiet place surrounded by fields. I had to travel into town for school and stuff like that.

Political correctness has become a straightjacket.

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.

Why did I walk so purposefully in a straight line? Where would it take me? He went round and round and we got there all the same.

People often put me in a V-neck tennis club sweater, driving a Bentley, but my life wasn't like that.

People who drink too much, health, and greedy. Hoard a treasure we do not like.

You can still practice to be a better and kinder and happier person. That's perfectly possible.

That's the great thing about doing good: Anyone can do it, any time, no waiting periods or batteries required.