Charles de Gaulle
I might have had trouble saving France in 1946 - I didn't have television then.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We are not here to laugh.
Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponentsCollection: Opponents
It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.Collection: Europe
Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.Collection: Country
Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to . . . dissipate one's strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one's thoughts.Collection: Strength
Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.Collection: Knowing
We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.Collection: Inspirational
Gentlemen, I am ready for the questions to my answers.Collection: Gentleman
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.Collection: Death
France has no friends, only interests.Collection: No Friends
Today we are crushed by the sheer weight of the mechanized forces hurled against us, but we can still look to the future in which even greater mechanized forces will bring us victory. Therein lies the destiny of the world.Collection: War
No policy is worth anything outside of reality.Collection: Reality
Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.Collection: Leadership
In war, the policy of least exertion always risks being paid for dearly.Collection: Military
It's impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese.Collection: Normal
Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator?Collection: Thinking
It so happens that the world is undergoing a transformation to which no change that has yet occurred can be compared, either in scope or in rapidity.Collection: Progress
Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that's the way he shows his passion for equalityCollection: Passion
In the tumult of great events, solitude was what I hoped for. Now it is what I love. How is it possible to be contented with anything else when one has come face to face with history?Collection: Solitude
Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.Collection: Men
I am not bad, thank you. But don't worry, one of these days I shall certainly die.Collection: Worry
One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.Collection: Together
I feel not a person but an instrument of destiny.Collection: Military
These people really aim very badly.Collection: Government
I myself have become a Gaullist only little by little.Collection: Littles
They really are bad shots.Collection: Death
Long live free Quebec!Collection: Long
I'm not at all embarrassed to be a revolutionary.Collection: Wisdom
All my life I have had a certain idea of France.Collection: Ideas
I cannot prevent the French from being FrenchCollection: Paris
I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.Collection: Littles
Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.Collection: Character
For all of us Frenchmen, the guiding rule of our epoch is to be faithful to France.Collection: Faithful
Old France, weighed down with history, prostrated by wars and revolutions, endlessly vacillating from greatness to decline, but revived, century after century, by the genius of renewal!Collection: War
Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on Radio London.Collection: Flames
My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial.Collection: Country
The evolution toward Communism is inevitable.Collection: Evolution
Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself.Collection: Leadership
I am a man who belongs to no-one and who belongs to everyone.Collection: Men
Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors.Collection: Leadership
What do you take me for, an idiot?Collection: Witty
Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.Collection: Strong
Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.Collection: Men