Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.
CHARLES DE GAULLEIn politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.
More Charles de Gaulle Quotes
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I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French.
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Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.
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He who laughs last didn’t get the joke.
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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?
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Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
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Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one.
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For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
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A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.
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The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.
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You’ll live. Only the best get killed.
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Don’t think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.
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Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential.
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France has no friends, only interests.
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Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors.
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It is not tolerable, it is not possible, that from so much death, so much sacrifice and ruin, so much heroism, a greater and better humanity shall not emerge.
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The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
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The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks.
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France was built with swords. The fleur-de-lis, symbol of national unity, is only the image of a spear with three pikes.
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Authority doesn’t work without prestige, or prestige without distance.
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France cannot be France without greatness.
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Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.
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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.
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How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over two hundred varieties of cheese?
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Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
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Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
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The leader is always alone before bad fates.
CHARLES DE GAULLE