Charles de Gaulle

"Character is the virtue of hard times."

"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."

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

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

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

"At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure."

"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."

"I am retiring. I have a mission, and it is coming to an end … 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."

"It is unnecessary, for the Republic has never ceased to exist. I was the Republic."

"Now she is like the others."

"A foreign military leader whose daring was feared by those who profited by it."

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

"I am a man who belongs to no-one and who belongs to everyone."

"Why do you think that at 67 I would start a career as a dictator?"

"I have understood you!"

"It's very good that there are yellow French people, black French people, brown French people. They show that France is open to all races and that it has a universal vocation. But on the condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise, France would no longer be France. We are above all a European people of white race, Greek and Latin culture and Christian religion. Let's not tell stories! Have you gone to see the Muslims? Did you look at them with their turbans and their djellabas? You see clearly that they are not French. Those who advocate integration have the brains of hummingbirds, even if they are very learned. Try to incorporate oil and vinegar. Shake the bottle. After a while, they will separate again. Arabs are Arabs, French are French. Do you believe that the French body can absorb ten million Muslims, who tomorrow will be twenty million and the day after tomorrow forty? If we integrate, if all the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria were considered French, how would we prevent them from settling in mainland France, when the standard of living is so much higher there? My village would no longer be called Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, but Colombey-les-Deux-Mosqués!"

"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."

"All my life, I have had a certain idea of France."

"Anything can happen someday, even that an act conforming to honour and honesty can end up, at the end of the line, as a good political decision."

"The leader is always alone before bad fates."

"Wie wollen Sie ein Volk regieren, das 246 Käsesorten besitzt?"