I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
Charles De GaulleRead
Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses; they last while they last.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Treaties are often temporary and fragile, much like relationships.
In this quote, Charles De Gaulle compares treaties to girls and roses, suggesting that both are beautiful and desirable in their own right, but also imply a certain transience and vulnerability. Just as relationships and flowers have a limited lifespan, so do treaties; they require care and goodwill to endure, and may not survive the test of time or changing circumstances.
Themes
TreatiesRelationshipsTransienceVulnerabilityFragility
In practice
Example use cases
During a negotiation, I reminded my team that treaties can be fragile, similar to the relationships we cultivate.
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
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