A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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 Quote

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 Quote

For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty six varieties of cheese?
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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 Quote

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

I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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?
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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 Quote

No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. So we were often angry at each other.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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 Quote

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote

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 Quote

You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.
- Charles de Gaulle Quote