 The true statesman is the one who is willing to take risks. |
| In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. |
| We are not here to laugh. |
| 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. |
| When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself. |
| When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time. |
| There can be no prestige without mystery, for familiarity breeds contempt. |
| I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro. |
| I might have had trouble saving France in 1946 - I didn't have television then. |
| The sword is the axis of the world and its power is absolute. |
| To govern is always to choose among disadvantages. |
| Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word. |
| Never relinquish the initiative. |
| France cannot be France without greatness. |
| Hearing Mass is the ceremony I most favor during my travels. Church is the only place where someone speaks to me and I do not have to answer back. |
| Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop. |
| 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. |
| China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. |
