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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.

Charles de Gaulle
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Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
Charles de Gaulle
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.
Charles de Gaulle
To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
Charles de Gaulle
I might have had trouble saving France in 1946 - I didn't have television then.
Charles de Gaulle
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
Charles de Gaulle
For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
Charles de Gaulle
The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
Charles de Gaulle
When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.
Charles de Gaulle
Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
Charles de Gaulle
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.
Charles de Gaulle
You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.
Charles de Gaulle
Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
Charles de Gaulle
The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.
Charles de Gaulle
No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.
Charles de Gaulle
Old age is a shipwreck.
Charles de Gaulle
No nation has friends only interests.
Charles de Gaulle
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
Charles de Gaulle
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?
Charles de Gaulle
France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.
Charles de Gaulle
Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
Charles de Gaulle
The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.
Charles de Gaulle
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles de Gaulle
I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.
Charles de Gaulle
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.
Charles de Gaulle
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
Charles de Gaulle
Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
Charles de Gaulle
I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.
Charles de Gaulle
The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
Charles de Gaulle
A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.
Charles de Gaulle
There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.
Charles de Gaulle
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles de Gaulle
You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
Charles de Gaulle
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.
Charles de Gaulle
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.
Charles de Gaulle
Never relinquish the initiative.
Charles de Gaulle
France cannot be France without greatness.
Charles de Gaulle
A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
Charles de Gaulle
Hearing Mass is the ceremony I most favor during my travels. Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
Charles de Gaulle
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.
Charles de Gaulle
I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.
Charles de Gaulle
The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.
Charles de Gaulle
Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
Charles de Gaulle
One cannot govern with 'buts'.
Charles de Gaulle
China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
Charles de Gaulle
You'll live. Only the best get killed.
Charles de Gaulle
I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro.
Charles de Gaulle
I was France.
Charles de Gaulle
Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.
Charles de Gaulle