184 Quotes by Charles de Gaulle

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

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

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.

Old age is a shipwreck.

You start out giving your hat, then you give your coat, then your shirt, then your skin and finally your soul.

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.

I cannot prevent the French from being French

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

Nothing more enhances authority than silence. It is the crowning virtue of the strong, the refuge of the weak, the modesty of the proud, the pride of the humble, the prudence of the wise, and the sense of fools. To speak is to . . . dissipate one's strength; whereas what action demands is concentration. Silence is a necessary preliminary to the ordering of one's thoughts.