“Gentlemen, I am ready for the questions to my answers.”

At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.

Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.

Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.

My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial.

The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.

All my life I have had a certain idea of France.

You’ll live. Only the best get killed.

Don’t think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.

Never relinquish the initiative.

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

Men are of no importance. What counts is who commands.

No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.

France has lost the battle but she has not lost the war.

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.

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself.

Every Frenchman wants to enjoy one or more privileges; that’s the way he shows his passion for equality.

One of the reasons I’ve felt so connected to poetry throughout the years is because it’s the only art form that has breath built into it. And I need that breath now. I need that breath so much. So, yes, it is a refuge for me. Absolutely.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

A lot of the questions that anyone would naturally have about their family, you’ll get much of the answers for, or at least hints to where it will go, in the future.

Poems have always been a place for questions for me. Not answers. And I have a lot of questions these days.

The answers are questions in disguise, every new answer giving rise to new questions.

It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?

Think about the answers of the questions that have not yet been asked! When they are asked, you will have the answers ready!

To answer, to live in a way which is compatible with the grandeur and mystery of living.