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Old France, Weighed Down With History, Prostrated By Wars And Revolutions, Endlessly Vacillating From Greatness To Decline, But Revived, Century After Century, By The Genius Of Renewal!

-Charles De Gaulle

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Old France, Weighed Down

Charles De Gaulle

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Old France, Weighed Down With History, Prostrated By Wars And Revolutions, Endlessly Vacillating From Greatness To Decline, But Revived, Century After Century, By The Genius Of Renewal!

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My Dear And Old Country, Here We Are Once Again Together Faced With A Heavy Trial.

Leaders Of Men Are Later Remembered Less For The Usefulness Of What They Have Achieved Than For The Sweep Of Their Endeavors.

There Can Be No Prestige Without Mystery, For Familiarity Breeds Contempt.

I Feel Not A Person But An Instrument Of Destiny.

How Can Anyone Govern A Nation That Has Two Hundred And Forty-six Different Kinds Of Cheese?

For All Of Us Frenchmen, The Guiding Rule Of Our Epoch Is To Be Faithful To France.

How Can You Govern A Country Which Has 246 Varieties Of Cheese?

I Wouldn't Mind Dying For France, But Not For Air France.

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.

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.

A True Leader Always Keeps An Element Of Surprise Up His Sleeve, Which Others Cannot Grasp But Which Keeps His Public Excited And Breathless.

One Must Wait Until The Evening To See How Splendid The Day Was; One Cannot Judge Life Until Death.

I Myself Have Become A Gaullist Only Little By Little.

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.

The Desire Of Privilege And The Taste Of Equality Are The Dominant And Contradictory Passions Of The French Of All Times.

Victory Often Goes To The Army That Makes The Least Mistakes, Not The Most Brilliant Plans.

Long Live Montreal, Long Live Quebec! Long Live Free Quebec!

I Predict You Will Sink Step By Step Into A Bottomless Quagmire, However Much You Spend In Men And Money." (on Vietnam War)

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.

I Always Thought I Was Jeanne D'arc And Bonaparte. How Little One Knows Oneself.

Knowing Oneself

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.

A Great Country Worthy Of The Name Does Not Have Any Friends.

The True Statesman Is The One Who Is Willing To Take Risks.

One Cannot Govern With 'buts'.

It's Impossible In Normal Times To Rally A Nation That Has 265 Kinds Of Cheese.

No, I'm Not Talking About The Russians; I Mean The Germans. In Spite Of Everything, To Have Pushed So Far!

I Have Against Me The Bourgeois, The Military And The Diplomats, And For Me, Only The People Who Take The Métro.

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.

Once Upon A Time

They Really Are Bad Shots.

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.

All My Life I Have Had A Certain Idea Of France.

France Has Lost The Battle But She Has Not Lost The War.

The Jews Remain What They Have Been At All Times: An Elite People, Self-confident And Domineering.

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.

To Govern Is Always To Choose Among Disadvantages.

Men Can Have Friends, Statesmen Cannot.

Men Are Of No Importance. What Counts Is Who Commands.

These People Really Aim Very Badly.

You May Be Sure That The Americans Will Commit All The Stupidities They Can Think Of, Plus Some That Are Beyond Imagination.

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?

Nothing Great Will Ever Be Achieved Without Great Men, And Men Are Great Only If They Are Determined To Be So.

Treaties Are Like Roses And Young Girls. They Last While They Last.

The Evolution Toward Communism Is Inevitable.

When I Want To Know What France Thinks, I Ask Myself.

Deliberation Is A Function Of The Many; Action Is The Function Of One.

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.

The Leader Is Always Alone Before Bad Fates.

France Has No Friends, Only Interests.

One Can Unite The French Only Under The Threat Of Danger. One Cannot Simply Bring Together A Nation That Produces 265 Kinds Of Cheese.

He Who Laughs Last Didn't Get The Joke.

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.

When I Am Right, I Get Angry. Churchill Gets Angry When He Is Wrong. We Are Angry At Each Other Much Of The Time.

Greatness Is A Road Leading Towards The Unknown.

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.

Adversity Attracts The Man Of Character. He Seeks Out The Bitter Joy Of Responsibility.

Faced With Crisis, The Man Of Character Falls Back Upon Himself.

We May Go To The Moon, But That' S Not Very Far. The Greatest Distance We Have To Cover Still Lies Within Us.

Always Choose The Hardest Way, On It You Will Not Find Opponents

Deliberation Is The Work Of Many Men. Action, Of One Alone.

Whereas Ordinary Officers Must Be Content With Behaving Correctly In Front Of Their Men, The Great Leaders Have Always Carefully Stage-managed Their Effects.

France Was Built With Swords. The Fleur-de-lis, Symbol Of National Unity, Is Only The Image Of A Spear With Three Pikes.

Gentlemen, I Am Ready For The Questions To My Answers.

Belgium Is A Country Invented By The British To Annoy The French.

One Does Not Arrest Voltaire.

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.

It Is Better To Have A Bad Method Than To Have None.

Character Is The Virtue Of Hard Times.

In War, The Policy Of Least Exertion Always Risks Being Paid For Dearly.

Long Live Free Quebec!

No Country Without An Atom Bomb Could Properly Consider Itself Independent.

Difficulty Attracts The Man Of Character Because It Is In Embracing It That He Realizes Himself

Whatever Happens, The Flame Of The French Resistance Must Not Be Extinguished And Will Not Be Extinguished. Tomorrow, As Today, I Will Speak On Radio London.

The Cabinet Has No Propositions To Make, But Orders To Give.

Diplomats Are Useful Only In Fair Weather. As Soon As It Rains They Drown In Every Drop.

For Glory Gives Herself Only To Those Who Have Always Dreamed Of Her.

Politics, When It Is An Art And A Service, Not An Exploitation, Is About Acting For An Ideal Through Realities.

Why Do You Think That At 67 I Would Start A Career As A Dictator?

I Might Have Had Trouble Saving France In 1946 - I Didn't Have Television Then.

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.

You Start Out Giving Your Hat, Then You Give Your Coat, Then Your Shirt, Then Your Skin And Finally Your Soul.

Genius Sometimes Consists Of Knowing When To Stop.

It Will Not Be Any European Statesman Who Will Unite Europe: Europe Will Be United By The Chinese.

I'm Not At All Embarrassed To Be A Revolutionary.

Nothing Builds Authority Up Like Silence, Splendor Of The Strong And Shelter Of The Weak.

I Am A Man Who Belongs To No-one And Who Belongs To Everyone.

I Grew Up To Always Respect Authority And Respect Those In Charge.

I Have Heard Your Views. They Do Not Harmonize With Mine. The Decision Is Taken Unanimously.

Don't Think Of Yourself As Indispensable Or Infallible. The Cemeteries Of The World Are Full Of Indispensable Men.

No Policy Is Worth Anything Outside Of Reality.

I Am Not Bad, Thank You. But Don't Worry, One Of These Days I Shall Certainly Die.

Betting Against Gold Is The Same As Betting On Governments. He Who Bets On Governments And Government Money Bets Against 6,000 Years Of Recorded Human History.

Difficulty Attracts The Characterful Man, For It Is By Grasping It That He Fulfils Himself.

In Order To Become The Master, The Politician Poses As The Servant.

The Cemetery Is Filled With Indispensable Men.

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.

Old France, Weighed Down With History, Prostrated By Wars And Revolutions, Endlessly Vacillating From Greatness To Decline, But Revived, Century After Century, By The Genius Of Renewal!

I Have Come To The Conclusion That Politics Are Too Serious A Matter To Be Left To The Politicians.

You Have To Be Fast On Your Feet And Adaptive Or Else A Strategy Is Useless.

In Politics It Is Necessary Either To Betray One's Country Or The Electorate. I Prefer To Betray The Electorate.

The Graveyards Are Full Of Indispensable Men.

Every Frenchman Wants To Enjoy One Or More Privileges; That's The Way He Shows His Passion For Equality

Authority Doesn't Work Without Prestige, Or Prestige Without Distance.

At The Root Of Our Civilization, There Is The Freedom Of Each Person Of Thought, Of Belief, Of Opinion, Of Work, Of Leisure.

It's Better To Have A Bad Plan Then No Plan At All.

Never Relinquish The Initiative.

Only By Coming To Grips With Difficulty Can You Realize Your Full Potential.

I Cannot Prevent The French From Being French

I Respect Only Those Who Resist Me, But I Cannot Tolerate Them.

How Can One Conceive Of A One-party System In A Country That Has Over Two Hundred Varieties Of Cheese?

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.

You'll Live. Only The Best Get Killed.

Love Is The Strongest Force The World Possesses, And Yet It Is The Greatness Is A Road Leading Towards The Unknown.

The Future Does Not Belong To Men.

Old Age Is A Shipwreck.

The Leader Must Aim High, See Big, Judge Widely, Thus Setting Himself Apart Form The Ordinary People Who Debate In Narrow Confines.

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.

The Better I Get To Know Men, The More I Find Myself Loving Dogs.

Since A Politician Never Believes What He Says, He Is Quite Surprised To Be Taken At His Word.

What Do You Take Me For, An Idiot?

China Is A Big Country, Inhabited By Many Chinese.

Patriotism Is When Love Of Your Own People Comes First; Nationalism, When Hate For People Other Than Your Own Comes First.

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.

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?

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.

France Cannot Be France Without Greatness.

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