Quotes

Gold is absolute objectivity. It is blind, like justice. It has no politics and ideology, no likes or dislikes, no friends or enemies. All it recognizes is its possessor, whom it serves faithfully so long as he has it.

[on action] Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.

France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.

[from his victory speech at the liberation of Paris, August 23, 1945] Paris! An outraged Paris! A broken Paris! A martyred Paris! But... a liberated Paris! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the armies of France, with the support and the help of all of France, of the fighting France, of the only France, the real France, the eternal France!

Sobriety of speech supplies a useful contrast to theatricality of manner. Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, and pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. The man who is moved by desire or fear is naturally led to seek relief in words.

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

Character is the virtue of hard times.

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

The sword is the axis of the world and grandeur cannot be divided.

Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.

Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.

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

Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator? (At a press conference in 1958)

France may still one day need an image that is pure. She must be left this image. If Joan of Arc had married, she would no longer have been Joan of Arc.

Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

Treaties are like maidens and roses. They each have their day.

France cannot be France without greatness.

Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, it is Europe, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the fate of the world.

How can you govern a country that has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?

No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.