Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents

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

Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.

Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator?

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

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

Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.

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

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.

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

There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.

No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.

Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.

It's impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese.

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

I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.

I am not bad, thank you. But don't worry, one of these days I shall certainly die.

My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial.

For all of us Frenchmen, the guiding rule of our epoch is to be faithful to France.

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

Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.

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

Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans.

Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.

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

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself

It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.

The Jews remain what they have been at all times: an elite people, self-confident and domineering.

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?

Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that's the way he shows his passion for equality

No, I'm not talking about the Russians; I mean the Germans. In spite of everything, to have pushed so far!

We may go to the moon, but that' s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.

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

You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.

Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.

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

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

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.

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

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