100 Quotes by Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle, a towering figure in French history, played a crucial role in shaping the nation's destiny during some of its most challenging times. Born in 1890, de Gaulle emerged as a charismatic military leader and statesman, gaining prominence during World War II as the leader of the Free French Forces, which resisted the German occupation. After the war, he became the founding president of the Fifth Republic of France and served as its leader from 1959 to 1969.
De Gaulle's leadership was marked by his determination to reestablish France as a major global player and to modernize its institutions. He sought to strengthen French sovereignty, both domestically and internationally, pursuing an independent foreign policy and promoting the development of nuclear weapons. Though he faced political opposition and social unrest during his tenure, de Gaulle's vision of a strong and independent France resonated with many citizens. His ability to rally the nation during times of crisis, coupled with his unwavering commitment to national sovereignty and the pursuit of grand ambitions, earned him the respect of many as a symbol of French resilience and statesmanship.
Charles de Gaulle Quotes
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?
Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents.
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.
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
He who laughs last didn't get the joke.
You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.
War stirs in men's hearts the mud of their worst instincts. It puts a premium on violence, nourishes hatred, and gives free rein to cupidity. It crushes the weak, exalts the unworthy, and bolsters tyranny .. .Time and time again it has destroyed all ordered living, devastated hope, and put the prophets to death.
Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.
You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.
History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads.
It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.
Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back upon himself.
At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.
A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.
Character is the virtue of hard times.
The future does not belong to men.
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
France has no friends, only interests.
The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.
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.
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.
A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.
Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
France cannot be France without greatness.
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
The Jews remain what they have been at all times: an elite people, self-confident and domineering.
Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.
No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.
Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.
The leader is always alone before bad fates.
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.
The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.
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?
There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, it is Europe, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the fate of the world.
To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself
China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.
Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.
Betting against gold is the same as betting on governments. He who bets on governments and government money bets against 6,000 years of recorded human history.
Never relinquish the initiative.
Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.
For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
There can be no other criterion, no other standard than gold. Yes, gold which never changes, which can be shaped into ingots, bars, coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence.
Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans.
The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.
Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.
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!
Old age is a shipwreck.
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.
What do you take me for, an idiot?
Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.
For all of us Frenchmen, the guiding rule of our epoch is to be faithful to France.
Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one.
France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.
Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.
Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
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.
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.
Men can have friends, statesmen cannot.
Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that's the way he shows his passion for equality
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.
It's better to have a bad plan then no plan at all.
A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.
The evolution toward Communism is inevitable.
France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.
Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
The cabinet has no propositions to make, but orders to give.
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.
The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
No policy is worth anything outside of reality.
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.
How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?
Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors.
It is better to have a bad method than to have none.
Long live Montreal, Long live Quebec! Long live Free Quebec!
One does not arrest Voltaire.
In war, the policy of least exertion always risks being paid for dearly.
Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.
One cannot govern with 'buts'.
These people really aim very badly.
All my life I have had a certain idea of France.
The cemetery is filled with indispensable men.
It's impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese.
My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial.
One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.
― Charles de Gaulle Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
