Charles de Gaulle

“Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”

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

“The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided.”

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

“Have you ever seen a dictator on a run-off ballot? [Responding to the charges of a dictatorial bent, after being forced into a run-off against the socialist François Mitterrand in the 1965 presidential elections]”

“I am a man who belongs to nobody and who belongs to everybody.”

“I am too poor to bow.”

“One must speak little. In action one must say nothing. The chief is the one who does not speak.”

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

“France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war”

“The cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”

“You'll live. Only the best get killed.”

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

“Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.”

“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”

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

“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.”

“Vive Le Québec Libre.”

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

“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.”

“In order to be the master, the politician poses as the servant.”

“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”

“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.”

“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”

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

“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.”

“China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. ”

“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.]”

“Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.”