“It’s impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese.”

Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.

For all of us Frenchmen, the guiding rule of our epoch is to be faithful to France.

France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.

The evolution toward Communism is inevitable.

Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt.

You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.

One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.

For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.

Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.

I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.

I’m not at all embarrassed to be a revolutionary.

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.

We may go to the moon, but that’ s not very far. The greatest distance we have to cover still lies within us.

A great country worthy of the name does not have any friends.

I saw a cavalry captain buy vegetable soup on horseback. He carried the whole mess home in his helmet.

I would treat her like an egg, the shell of which we remove before eating it; I would take off her mask and then kiss her pretty face.

Gluttony? I could eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. I’d love to pig out on gluten. I mean, I’m allergic to gluten, but I really want to do that. I want to sit in bed one day and just pig out.

If you have two loaves of bread, keep one to nourish the body, but sell the other to buy hyacinths for the soul.

Some men like a dull life – they like the routine of eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, petting the dog, watching TV, kissing the kids, and going to bed. Stay clear of it – it’s often catching.

Focusing on food and exercise changed my life.

There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man’s spice-box seasons his own food.

Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain.