Charles de Gaulle Quotes - Page 5

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

Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.

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.

No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

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

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

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

One does not arrest Voltaire.

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

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.

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

In the tumult of great events, solitude was what I hoped for. Now it is what I love. How is it possible to be contented with anything else when one has come face to face with history?

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

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

One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

I feel not a person but an instrument of destiny.

One cannot govern with 'buts'.

These people really aim very badly.

I myself have become a Gaullist only little by little.

They really are bad shots.

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.

Long live free Quebec!

I'm not at all embarrassed to be a revolutionary.

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.