Charles de Gaulle Quotes - Page 2

The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.

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

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.

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

Soyons fermes, purs et fidèles ; au bout de nos peines, il y a la plus grande gloire du monde, celle des hommes qui n'ont pas cédé. [Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.]

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.

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.

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.

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.

I wouldn't mind dying for France, but not for Air France.

When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.

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

Character is the virtue of hard times.

Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.

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.

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

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

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

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

You'll live. Only the best get killed.

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

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.

I predict you will sink step by step into a bottomless quagmire, however much you spend in men and money." (On Vietnam War)

He who laughs last didn't get the joke.

Never relinquish the initiative.