Charles de Gaulle

“Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.”

“Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.”

“A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.”

“Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him, indeed, they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make them...”

“In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.”

“It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.”

“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”

“It so happens that the world is undergoing a transformation to which no change that has yet occurred can be compared, either in scope or in rapidity.”

“I respect only those who resist me, but cannot tolerate them.”

“Always choose the most difficult way, there you will not meet competitors.”

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

“As an adolescent I was convinced that France would have to go through gigantic trials, that the interest of life consisted in one day rendering her some signal service and that I would have...”

“The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.”

“One does not arrest Voltaire.”

“No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.”

“The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute.”

“I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro.”

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

“One cannot govern with 'buts'.”

“Once upon a time there was an old country, wrapped up in habit and caution. We have to transform our old France into a new country and marry it to its time.”