Words matter. These are the best Charles de Gaulle Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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?
Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.
The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.
Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.
When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.
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.
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
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.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
Old age is a shipwreck.
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.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.
We are not here to laugh.
To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
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.
No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.
One does not arrest Voltaire.
The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.
France cannot be France without greatness.
No nation has friends only interests.
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.
As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through gigantic trials, that the interest of life consisted in one day rendering her some signal service and that I would have the occasion to do so.
I was France.
I might have had trouble saving France in 1946 – I didn’t have television then.
The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
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.
Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
