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Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

— Charles de Gaulle Le Fil de l'épée (1932)

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Silence

More quotes by Charles de Gaulle

France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.

France cannot be France without greatness.

Mémoires de guerre (1954)

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

At the root of our civilization, there is the freedom of each person of thought, of belief, of opinion, of work, of leisure.

All Charles de Gaulle quotes →

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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox New Thought Pastels (1913)

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.

Benedict of Nursia

I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?

Federico Fellini I'm a Born Liar (2003)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles de Gaulle (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.