Quotes from Charles de Gaulle

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 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.

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

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

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

Before such a prodigious career, judgement is torn between blame and admiration.

How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?

The perfection preached in the Gospels never yet built up an Empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of optimism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all these things will be forgiven him, indeed they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make of them the means to achieve great ends.

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!

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

Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him, indeed, they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.

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.

I respect only those who resist me, but cannot tolerate them.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself.

Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains, they drown in every drop.

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?

In war, the policy of least exertion always risks being paid for dearly.

Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

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

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.

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.

The future does not belong to men.

Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.