Charles de Gaulle Quotes - Page 3

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

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

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

The leader is always alone before bad fates.

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

It is better to have a bad method than to have none.

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?

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

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

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.

The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.

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.

China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

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.

The cemetery is filled with indispensable men.

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.

The future does not belong to men.

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

France cannot be France without greatness.

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

Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.

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?

It's better to have a bad plan then no plan at all.

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.