French Politician Quotes

Woe to the man who in the first moments of a love-affair does not believe that it will last forever! Woe to him who even in the arms of some mistress who has just yielded to him maintains an awareness of trouble to come and foresees that he may later tear himself away!

Benjamin Constant

Remain steadfast in the faith; instruct yourself; bridle your tongue; repress your wrath; forbear to do evil; associate with the good; screen the faults of your neighbour; relieve the poor by your alms; and expect your reward in eternity.

Édouard René de Laboulaye

I have always perceived, or nearly so, the defects of those I love; and such defects are the only ones I can see clearly. But for the want of archangels, we must love imperfect creatures.

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

Five or six hundred [aristocratic] heads lopped off would have assured you repose and happiness; a false humanity has restrained your arm and suspended your blows; it will cost the lives of millions of your brothers.

Jean-Paul Marat

Citizens, by what illusion could one persuade himself that you are inhuman. Your Revolutionary Tribunal has condemned three hundred rascals to death in a year. Has not the Spanish Inquisition done worse than that... Have the English assizes butchered no one in that period?... What of the kings of Europe, does anyone prate to them of pity? Ah, do not allow yourselves to grow soft-hearted!

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

Neither Germany nor Italy have doubts. Our crisis is not a material crisis. We have lost faith in our destiny... We are like mariners without a pilot.

Philippe Pétain

Of France:

A nation of monkeys with the throat of parrots.

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

Federalism is a guideline, not a pornographic word, you can speak it out loud... We have been focusing too much on a country that has said no, no, no!

On your feet, you damned souls of the earth! On your feet, inmates of hunger's prison!

Eugène Edine Pottier

To judge of the real importance of an individual, one should think of the effect his death would produce.

Pierre Marc Gaston de Lévis, Duke of Lévis

As a child, on being asked by his older brother why he would not learn to read:

Because when I grow up I'm going to be a millionaire and hire someone to read for me.

James Goldsmith

Religion assures us that our afflictions shall have an end; she comforts us, she dries our tears, she promises us another life. On the contrary, in the abominable worship of atheism, human woes are the incense, death is the priest, a coffin the altar, and annihilation the Deity.

François-René de Chateaubriand

A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action. It is as if a tennis player before returning a ball stopped to think about his views of the physical and mental advantages of tennis. You must act as you breathe.

Georges Clemenceau

A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.

Georges Pompidou

No nostalgia runs deeper than that for something one has never known and now cannot obtain.

Putin rejected the diplomatic path and chose the path of war. We will take full responsibility for defending the sovereignty of our allies.

Emmanuel Macron

When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

With each time hunting moves back, it is Coca-Cola that advances.

Roselyne Bachelot

It is magnificent, but it is not war; it is madness.

The fall of Saddam Hussein led to chaos in Iraq, which has become the home of jihadism.

I believe in the forces of the spirit, and I won't leave you.

François Mitterrand

Freedom is when one hears the bell at 7 o'clock in the morning and knows it is the milkman and not the Gestapo.

Georges Bidault

The domain in which chemical synthesis exercises its creative power is vaster than that of nature herself.

Marcellin Berthelot

Tilling and grazing are the two breasts that feed France.

Maximilien de Béthune

When it's a question of peace one must talk to the Devil himself.

Édouard Herriot