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Charles de Gaulle
45 quotes
“Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is better to have a bad method than to have none.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Character is the virtue of hard times.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poster À tous les Français (To All Frenchmen), 3 August 1940.
“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 (1890–1970) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech, November 25 1941. Quoted in de Gaulle: "La France n'a pas perdu la guerre: discours et messages", pg 114
“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 (1890–1970) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech, July 14 1943.
“I am retiring. I have a mission, and it is coming to an end … France may still one day need an image that is pure. She must be left this image. If Joan of Arc had married, she would no longer have been Joan of Arc.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Pierre Bertaux in 1944, as recounted in The Atlantic, November 1960.
“It is unnecessary, for the Republic has never ceased to exist. I was the Republic.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reply in August 1944 to a statement of regret that the windows of the Hotel de Ville in Paris were not opened for the crowd outside cheering the reestablishment of the Republic. Quoted in Atlantic, November 1960.
“Now she is like the others.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Spoken at the funeral of his daughter Anne, who had Down Syndrome, February 1948. Quoted in De Gaulle by Julian Jackson
“A foreign military leader whose daring was feared by those who profited by it.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On General Douglas MacArthur (1951). De Gaulle said MacArthur's critics should "pay deserved tribute to the legendary service of a great soldier". Quoted in American Caesar by William Manchester.
“Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference, June 30 1955. Quoted in "Le Général de Gaulle et la construction de l'Europe" (1967), pg 33.
“I am a man who belongs to no-one and who belongs to everyone.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference, 19 May 1958. Quoted in "Carnets secrets de la politique" (1958) by Jean Raymond Tournoux.
“Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator?”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference, 19 May 1958. De Gaulle was changing the constitution to make government more efficient, after decades of impotent parliamentary regime, and he mocked journalists who claimed he was establishing a dicta…
“I have understood you!”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said before the population of Algiers after they had called upon him to take power, June 4, 1958.
“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 (1890–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 23 November 1959, Strasbourg. The phrase shown in bold is the most often quoted excerpt. De Gaulle was expressing his vision of Europe's future.
“All my life, I have had a certain idea of France.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anything can happen someday, even that an act conforming to honour and honesty can end up, at the end of the line, as a good political decision.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The leader is always alone before bad fates.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Difficulty attracts a man of character, for it is by embracing it that he fulfills himself.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cabinet has no propositions to make, but orders to give.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Secretary of State De Gaulle so replied, in early June 1940, to Admiral Darlan, whom he was asking to transfer what was left of the French army to North Africa
“France cannot be France without greatness.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No policy is worth anything outside of reality.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Televised speech, June 14 1960
“How can you govern a country that has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Les Mots du Général, Ernest Mignon, 1962
“[T]his treaty [the Treaty of Rome], which was precise and complete enough concerning industry, was not at all so on the subject of agriculture, and for our country this had to be settled. Indeed, it is obvious that agriculture is an essential element in our national activity as a whole. We cannot conceive of a Common Market in which French agriculture would not find outlets in keeping with its production. And we agree further that, of the Six, we are the country on which this necessity is imposed in the most imperative manner.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference in Paris (14 January 1963), quoted in Kenneth M. Setton and Henry R. Winkler (eds.), Great Problems in European Civilization (1954; 2nd ed. 1966), p. 582
“England in effect is insular, she is maritime, she is linked through her exchanges, her markets, her supply lines to the most diverse and often the most distant countries; she pursues essentially industrial and commercial activities, and only slight agricultural ones. She has in all her doings very marked and very original habits and traditions. In short, the nature, the structure, the very situation that are England's differ profoundly from those of the continentals.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference in Paris explaining his rejection of Britain's application to join the European Economic Community (14 January 1963), quoted in The Times (15 January 1963), p. 6
“Macmillan had crossed the Atlantic to throw himself into the arms of Kennedy to whom he sold his birthright in exchange for a dish of Polaris... Let us always recall this obvious truth. The Common Market cannot remain the Common Market and at the same time absorb Great Britain and her clients. The British would only enter in order to break up the machine.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments recorded in Jean Raymond Tournoux, La Tragedie du General, quoted in The Times (27 November 1967), p. 9
“Treaties are like maidens and roses. They each have their day.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to a group of parliamentarians on the day the Élysée Treaty was ratified (1963), quoted in F. Roy Willis, France, Germany, and the New Europe 1945–1963 (1965), p. 314
“I am not ill. But do not worry, one day, I will certainly die.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference, February 1965, denying rumours that he secretly had a terminal disease
“Of course one can jump up and down yelling Europe ! Europe ! Europe ! But it amounts to nothing and it means nothing.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on a presidential campaign, December 1965 INA archive of the video (De Gaulle meant that he wanted to build a European Union on realities, i.e. the existing nation-states with their respective interests – not …
“Long live Montreal, Long live Quebec! Long live free Quebec!”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said in 1967 on the balcony of Montréal City Hall,, with particular emphasis on the word 'libre'. The phrase, a slogan used by Quebecers who favoured Quebec sovereignty, and de Gaulle's use of it, was seen by them as le…
“Some even feared that the Jews, hitherto widely dispersed and who had remained what they had always been, that is to say, an elite people, sure of itself and domineering, once they were together again in the lands of their former grandeur might transform into a burning, conquering ambition the heart-moving wishes voiced since nineteen centuries: next year in Jerusalem.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press Conference, 27 November 1967 INA archive of the video
“The future does not belong to men and I do not predict it.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech, December 1967
“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to de Gaulle by Romain Gary, Life, May 9, 1969
Also quoted by: Georges Clemenceau (misattributed), Samuel Johnson (misattributed)
“I must say that if, on resuming control of our affairs, I embraced the Common Market forthwith, it was as much because of our position as an agricultural country as for the spur it would give to our industry.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Memoirs of Hope: Renewal 1958–62, Endevaour 1962–, translated by Terence Kilmartin (1971), p. 159
“Men may have friends, statesmen cannot.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Les trois views de Charles de Gaulle by David Schoenbrun (1965)
“When we were children, we often played war. We had a fine collection of lead soldiers. My brothers would take different countries: Xavier had Italy; Pierre, Germany. Or they would swap around. Well, I, gentlemen, always had France.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reminiscing during an ocean voyage to Tahiti, quoted in The Atlantic, November 1960.
“Do you know that you have caused us more trouble than all the rest of our European allies?" "I do not doubt it. France is a great power.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with Anthony Eden, recounted in de Gaulle's Mémoires de guerre. Quoted in The Atlantic, November 1960.
“Within ten years, we shall have the means to kill 80 million Russians. I truly believe that one does not light-heartedly attack people who are able to kill 80 million Russians, even if one can kill 800 million French, that is if there were 800 million French.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discussing the Force de Frappe. Quoted in The New York Review of Books, 29 April 2010.
“It's very good that there are yellow French people, black French people, brown French people. They show that France is open to all races and that it has a universal vocation. But on the condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise, France would no longer be France. We are above all a European people of white race, Greek and Latin culture and Christian religion. Let's not tell stories! Have you gone to see the Muslims? Did you look at them with their turbans and their djellabas? You see clearly that they are not French. Those who advocate integration have the brains of hummingbirds, even if they are very learned. Try to incorporate oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. After a while, they will separate again. Arabs are Arabs, French are French. Do you believe that the French body can absorb ten million Muslims, who tomorrow will be twenty million and the day after tomorrow forty? If we integrate, if all the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria were considered French, how would we prevent them from settling in mainland France, when the standard of living is so much higher there? My village would no longer be called Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, but Colombey-les-Deux-Mosqués!”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 5 March 1959, conversation with Alain Peyrefitte. Quoted in "It was De Gaulle" ("C'était de Gaulle"), Volume 1, 1994, pg 52. Editions de Fallois et Fayard.
“So, it is true that one’s homeland is entirely human, emotional and that it is the root of action, of authority, of responsibility from which one can build Europe. What elements? Well, [[Nation-state|[nation] States]], because only States are valid, are legitimate, in this respect, in addition they are capable of… As I have already said and I repeat, that at the present time, there cannot be any other Europe than that of the States, apart of course from myths, fictions, parades. From this solidarity depends all hope of uniting Europe in the political field and in the field of defense, as in the economic field. From this solidarity depends, therefore, the destiny of Europe as a whole, from the Atlantic to the Urals.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference, Elysée Palace, Paris, 15 May 1962
“What England has done across the centuries and in the world is recognised as immense. Although there have often been conflicts with France, Britain's glorious participation in the victory which crowned the First World War—we French, we shall always admire it. As for the role England played in the most dramatic and decisive moments of the Second World War, no one has the right to forget it. In truth, the destiny of the free world, and first of all ours and even that of the United States and Russia, depended in a large measure on the resolution, the solidity and the courage of the English people, as Churchill was able to harness them. Even at the present moment no one can contest British capacity and worth.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference in Paris (14 January 1963), quoted in The Times (15 January 1963), p. 6