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A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.  
As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through ...  
Authority doesn't work without prestige, or prestige without distance.  
China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.  
Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have ...  
Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.  
Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they dr...  
Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's ...  
Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He impo...  
For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.  
France cannot be France without greatness.  
France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war.  
Hearing Mass is the ceremony I most favor during my travels. Church is...  
How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?  
How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over ...  
How can you be expected to govern a country that has 246 kinds of chee...   History
How can you govern a country with two hundred and forty six varieties ...  
I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one know...  
I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.  
I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and f...  
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter t...  
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to...  
I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision...  
I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her...   History
I might have had trouble saving France in 1946-I didn't have televisio...  
I predict you will sink step by step into a bottomless quagmire, howev...  
I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.  
I was France.  
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.   Politics
In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the elec...   Politics
In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is...  
My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a ...   History
No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself indepen...  
Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are gre...  
Now I shall return to my village and there will remain at the disposit...  
Old age is a shipwreck.   Age
Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and cau...  
One cannot govern with 'buts'.  
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, w...  
Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.  
Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.  
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised ...  
The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.  
The graveyards are full of indispensable men.  
The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.  
The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself ...  
The national task that had been incumbent upon me for 18 years is here...  
The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.  
The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.  
There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds conte...  
To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.  
Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.  
Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last...  
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. W...  
When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.  
You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is us...  
You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities the...  
You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shir...  
You'll live. Only the best get killed.