“I am not bad, thank you. But don’t worry, one of these days I shall certainly die.”

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?

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?

It is better to have a bad method than to have none.

Authority doesn’t work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

France has no friends, only interests.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

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.

In war, the policy of least exertion always risks being paid for dearly.

Character is the virtue of hard times.

Adversity attracts the man of character. He seeks out the bitter joy of responsibility.

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.

Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.

One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

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?

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.

It’s better to have a bad plan then no plan at all.

I’m not afraid of death. That is the greatest mystery of all. That’ll be it, that one. But it is all a race against time.

And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

I like death. I’m a big fan of it.

Death is nature’s way of killing you.

If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

One must die to life in order to be utterly a creator.

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!

Almost the moment he died, they put him in Playboy as one of the greatest drummers, which he was – there’s no doubt about it. There’s never been anybody since. He’s one of the greatest drummers that ever lived.