Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

—Charles de Gaulle

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.

—Chester Bowles

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Life, May 9, 1969

The French will only be united under the threat of danger. How else can one govern a country that produces 246 different kinds of cheese?

speech, 1951

How can one conceive of a one-party system in a country that has over 200 varieties of cheeses?

in New York Times Magazine, June 29, 1958

You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.

quoted in Time, December 8, 1967

The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without.

—Elbert Hubbard

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

—Charles de Gaulle

The graveyards are filled with men who thought they could not be replaced.

—Roger Zelazny, The Guns of Avalon, 1972