“Old age is a shipwreck.”
“Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.”
“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”
“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
“France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war.”
“Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.”
“I respect only those who resist me; but I cannot tolerate them.”
“The sword is the axis of the world, and grandeur is indivisible.”
“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”
“Treaties are like roses and young girls -- they last while they last”
“For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.”
“No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent.”
“How can you govern a country that has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?”
“Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back.”
“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.”
“Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains, they drown in every drop.”
“I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”
“When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. So we were often angry at each other.”
“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.”
“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.”
“In the tumult of men and events, solitude was my temptation; now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History?”
“Every man of action has a strong dose of egoism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be regarded as high qualities if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.”