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date: 30 May 2023

Charles de Gaulle 1890–1970
French soldier and statesman, President of France 1959–69 

  1. France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war!
    proclamation, 18 June 1940
  2. And now she is like everyone else.
    on the death of his daughter, who had been born with Down's syndrome
    in 1948, Jean Lacouture De Gaulle (1965)
  3. Je vous ai compris.
    I have understood you.
    speech to French colonists at Algiers, 4 June 1958
  4. 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.
    speech to the people of Strasbourg, 23 November 1959
  5. Politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
    replying to Attlee's remark that ‘De Gaulle is a very good soldier and a very bad politician’
    Clement Attlee A Prime Minister Remembers (1961) ch. 4; see Clemenceau
  6. Europe des patries.
    A Europe of nations.
    widely associated with De Gaulle, 1962, and taken as encapsulating his views, although perhaps not coined by him
    J. Lacouture De Gaulle: the Ruler (1991)
  7. How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?
    Ernest Mignon Les Mots du Général (1962)
  8. Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
    Ernest Mignon Les Mots du Général (1962)
  9. Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.
    speech at Elysée Palace, 2 July 1963
  10. Vive Le Québec Libre.
    Long Live Free Quebec.
    speech in Montreal, 24 July 1967