Quotes By Charles De Gaulle

Never relinquish the initiative.

Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.

We are not here to laugh.

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

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

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

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

When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.

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.

No nation has friends only interests.

One cannot govern with 'buts'.

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

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

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

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

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

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

Old age is a shipwreck.

You'll live. Only the best get killed.

France cannot be France without greatness.

One does not arrest Voltaire.

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

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

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.

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.

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

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.

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.