Quotes By Charles De Gaulle

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

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

I was France.

Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.

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.

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.

Never relinquish the initiative.

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.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

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.

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

It is not tolerable, it is not possible, that from so much death, so much sacrifice and ruin, so much heroism, a greater and better humanity shall not emerge.

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.

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

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

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.

When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.

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

You'll live. Only the best get killed.

France cannot be France without greatness.

One does not arrest Voltaire.

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