Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to reestablish democracy in France. These Charles de Gaulle quotes will motivate you.
Best Charles de Gaulle Quotes
- “How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to . . . dissipate one’s strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one’s thoughts.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “We may go to the moon, but that’ s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “France has no friends, only interests.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “In politics, it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.]” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“You’ll live. Only the best get killed.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Gentlemen, I am ready for the questions to my answers.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin, and finally your soul.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “The Jews remain what they have been at all times: an elite people, self-confident and domineering.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “No, I’m not talking about the Russians; I mean the Germans. In spite of everything, to have pushed so far!” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“Character is the virtue of hard times.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “He who laughs last didn’t get the joke.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle Quotes
- “Never relinquish the initiative.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “The future does not belong to men.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Whereas ordinary officers must be content with behaving correctly in front of their men, the great leaders have always carefully stage-managed their effects.” ~ Charles de Gaulle Quotes
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“The leader is always alone before bad fates.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
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“France cannot be France without greatness.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “I always thought I was Jeanne d’Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “Authority doesn’t work without prestige, or prestige without distance.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “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.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
- “To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.” ~ Charles de Gaulle
