Charles de Gaulle Quotes

Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.

I myself have become a Gaullist only little by little.

Treaties are like girls and roses—they last while they last.

The French will only be united under the threat of danger. How else can one govern a country that produces 246 different types of cheese?

Since those whose duty it was to wield the sword of France have let it fall shattered to the ground, I have taken up the broken blade.

France has lost a battle! But France has not lost the war!

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

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.

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

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

We are not here to laugh.

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

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.

The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.

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.

One does not arrest Voltaire.

One cannot govern with ‘buts’.