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