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Thinker · 13 quotes

Charles de Gaulle quotes for UPSC

13 sourced quotes by Charles de Gaulle on leadership, character & virtue, resilience & perseverance, integrity & honesty, civil services & public service, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.

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Anything can happen someday, even that an act conforming to honour and honesty can end up, at the end of the line, as a good political decision.
— Charles de GaulleTout peut, un jour, arriver, même qu'un acte conforme à l'honneur et à l'honnêteté apparaisse en fin de compte, comme un bon placement polit
Use itGS4: argue honesty and good governance can coincide; ethics need not lose to expediency.
Integrity & HonestyGovernance & AdministrationEssayGS4
Difficulty attracts a man of character, for it is by embracing it that he fulfills himself.
— Charles de GaulleLa difficulté attire l'homme de caractère, car c'est en l'étreignant qu'il se réalise lui-même
Use itLife/Interview: people of character embrace difficulty to fulfil themselves.
Character & VirtueResilience & PerseveranceGS4InterviewLife
Men may have friends, statesmen cannot.
— Charles de GaulleLes hommes peuvent avoir des amis, pas les hommes d'Etat
Use itGS4 on conflict of interest; public office demands impartiality over personal friendships.
LeadershipIntegrity & HonestyGS4
The leader is always alone before bad fates.
— Charles de GaulleToujours le chef est seul en face du mauvais destin
Use itGS4 on loneliness of command; leaders bear final responsibility in crises.
LeadershipDuty & ResponsibilityGS4Interview
Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.
— Charles de GaulleOn ne fait rien de grand sans de grands hommes, et ceux-ci le sont pour l'avoir voulu
Use itEssay on leadership; greatness begins with the will to achieve it.
LeadershipYouth, Dreams & AmbitionEssayInterview
Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.
— Charles de GaulleRien ne rehausse l'autorité mieux que le silence, splendeur des forts et refuge des faibles
Use itGS4 on leadership qualities; authority rests on restraint, dignity and protecting the weak.
LeadershipPower & CorruptionEssayGS4
Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.
— Charles de GaulleLa politique, quand elle est un art et un service, non point une exploitation, c'est une action pour un idéal à travers des réalités
Use itGS4: politics and administration as service to an ideal, grounded in realities, not exploitation.
Civil Services & Public ServiceGovernance & AdministrationEssayGS2GS4
No policy is worth anything outside of reality.
— Charles de GaulleIl n'y a pas de politique qui vaille en dehors des réalités
Use itGS2 on policy design; policies detached from ground reality fail.
Governance & AdministrationEssayGS2GS3
At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.
— Charles de GaulleA la base de notre civilisation, il y a la liberté de chacun dans sa pensée, ses croyances, ses opinions, son travail, ses loisirs
Use itGS2/Essay on fundamental rights; freedom of thought, belief and opinion as civilisation's root.
Democracy & FreedomHistory & CivilisationEssayGS2
France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.
— Charles de GaulleLa France a perdu une bataille, mais la France n'a pas perdu la guerre
Use itLife: a setback like one failed attempt is a lost battle, not a lost war.
Resilience & PerseveranceEssayInterviewLife
Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.
— Charles de GaulleSoyons fermes, purs et fidèles ; au bout de nos peines, il y a la plus grande gloire du monde, celle des hommes qui n'ont pas cédé
Use itEssay conclusion on perseverance; glory belongs to those who did not give in.
Resilience & PerseveranceCourageEssayLife

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