I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
Charles De GaulleRead
You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously suggests that Americans tend to make foolish decisions and actions, sometimes beyond what one might expect.
Charles De Gaulle's quote reflects a comedic cynicism about the propensity for people, particularly Americans in this case, to make a wide range of blunders, both expected and unexpected. It can be interpreted as a critique of decision-making that fails to consider the consequences, highlighting a seemingly inherent foolishness in human nature when faced with the freedom of thought and action.
Themes
AmericansStupiditiesHumorDecisionsBlunders
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared when discussing cultural differences in approaches to decision-making.
More from Charles De Gaulle
All quotes →Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.
Charles De GaulleRead
Today we are crushed by the sheer weight of the mechanized forces hurled against us, but we can still look to the future in which even greater mechanized forces will bring us victory. Therein lies the destiny of the world.
Charles De GaulleRead
The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning.
Charles De GaulleRead
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.
Charles De GaulleRead
Soyons 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. [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 GaulleRead
Similar quotes
Just making the crowd laugh is not really doing things for me anymore. That's just knowing how to kill; I've learned how to kill - but also learned when a crowd's laughter is meaningful.
Patrice O'NealRead
Many old music hall fans were present at the funeral today of Fred 'Chuckles' Jenkins, Britain's oldest and unfunniest comedian. In tribute, the vicar read out one of Fred's jokes, and the congregation had two minutes silence.
Ronnie BarkerRead
When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.
Mark TwainRead
There are two insults no human being will endure: that he has no sense of humor, and that he has never known trouble.
Sinclair LewisRead
I like to do things that are publicly embarrassing, to feel the embarrassment touch me and sink into me and then be gone. I like getting on elevators and singing too loudly in that small space. The feeling you feel is almost like a vapor. The discomfort and the wishing that it would end that comes around you.
Stephen ColbertRead
It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.
P. G. WodehouseRead