French History Quotes

The moment in Paris where I saluted Napoleon's tomb was one of the proudest of my life.

I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.

I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomiting. I cannot prevent the French from being French.

I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.

Napoleon was indeed the man sent by God to help the youth of France! Who is to take his place?

France cannot be France without grandeur.

I am typically French.

Joan of Arc was not elected.

If there were no Frenchwomen, life wouldn't be worth living.

The student of French history will recall three systems which have tried to deal with this admitted passion of the French people. The Bourbons crushed it; the Orleanists snubbed it; the Bonapartes deceived it.

One of these suburbs is actually named Stalingrad, which goes to show that the French have learned nothing about politics since they guillotined all the smart people in 1793.

The French are ... the most brilliant and the most dangerous nation of Europe, and the one that is surest to inspire admiration, hatred, terror, or pity, but never indifference.

Robespierre, this pedant of freedom!

From 1801, Napoleon began an ambitious programme of civil reform to standardise law and justice, centralise education, introduce uniform weights and measures and a fully functioning internal market. That achievement alone makes him one of the giants of history.

Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country - bigger than all the Presidents together. We are still too near to his greatness,' (Leo) Tolstoy (in 1908) concluded, 'but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.' (748)

For the Soul of France is masterful history, brilliantly researched, and hard to put down.

To walk into the hall of mirrors of Versailles as Louis XIV and deliver a monologue on your own in an empty hall of mirrors is like no other experience.

Civill Wars of France made a million of Atheists, and 30000 Witches.

You do not understand the honor of France!

Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally destined to emerge from the Revolution.

There's something Vichy about the French.

I was France.

The Élysée Palace is a place laden with history. It is a place where power has left its mark - over the course of centuries, ever since the revolution. You just sort of become part of it and continue the history. But, of course, there is a sense of gravitas.

I think there is an extreme charm in the French, and actually it's their bolshiness that makes them such fun.