Charles de Gaulle — "The essential is to act, not to be acted upon."
The essential is to act, not to be acted upon.
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More from Charles de Gaulle
"It is impossible to be a good soldier without being a good citizen."
"The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law."
"Have you ever seen a dictator on a run-off ballot?"
"I am not a man of compromise."
"Politics is not about logic, but about passions."
About Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)
French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces from London during WWII and founded France's Fifth Republic in 1958. Closely associated with Winston Churchill (wartime British ally and rival) and Konrad Adenauer (postwar German Chancellor and reconciliation partner). For an intellectual contrast, see Philippe Pétain, Marshal of France and Vichy collaborationist head of state — Pétain's June 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany was the surrender de Gaulle's London BBC broadcasts publicly rejected — postwar French identity is structured around which one was right, the surrender path or the resistance.