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
"In order to build something new, you must first destroy the old."
"The only things that are really alive are those that can be killed."
"To be great, one must be misunderstood."
"The French are a 'nation of calves'."
"The best way to deal with a problem is to solve it."
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.