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

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

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?

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.

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

Our greatest battle is to become ourselves, in the face of adversity.

See that you are not suddenly saddened by the adversities of this world, for you do not know the good they bring, being ordained in the judgments of God for the everlasting joy of the elect.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

After we come out of the storm we shouldn’t be the same individual that walked into it, That’s what the storms, opposition & adversity is about.

People get upset not because of the adversity they face, but because their adversity reveals who they really are.

When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.