I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
Charles De GaulleRead
Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals, it is Europe, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the fate of the world.
Interpretation
The fate of the world hinges on the decisions made by Europe as a whole.
This quote emphasizes the importance of Europe in shaping global events and outcomes. De Gaulle suggests that the decisions made within Europe, encompassing its geographical and cultural entirety from the Atlantic to the Urals, have a significant impact on the world stage, implying a responsibility that lies with European leaders and nations.
In practice
During a keynote speech about international relations, one might cite this quote to emphasize Europe's role in global issues.
I always thought I was Jeanne d'Arc and Bonaparte. How little one knows oneself.
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.
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.
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.
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day was; one cannot judge life until death.
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.]
The Founding Fathers were neither passive, death-worshipin g mystics nor mindless, power-seeking looters; as a political group they were a phenomenon unprecedented in history: they were thinkers who were also men of action.
A civilization begins to decline the moment Life becomes its sole obsession.
Deserts possess a particular magic, since they have exhausted their own futures, and are thus free of time. Anything erected there, a city, a pyramid, a motel, stands outside time. It's no coincidence that religious leaders emerge from the desert. Modern shopping malls have much the same function. A future Rimbaud, Van Gogh or Adolf Hitler will emerge from their timeless wastes.
The problem of evil, that is to say the reconciling of our failures, even the purely physical ones, with creative goodness and creative power, will always remain one of the most disturbing mysteries of the universe for both our hearts and our minds.
But there are no loners. No man lives in a void. His every act is conditioned by his time and his society.
We are slaves in the hands of nature - slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything.
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