François Mitterrand quotes

A man loses contact with reality if he is not surrounded by his books. (François Mitterrand)

France is delighted at this new opportunity to show the world that when one has the will one can succeed in joining peoples who have been brought close by history.

François Mitterrand

Behind each great man, there's a Richard Delisle.

François Mitterrand

For me Greece is Maria Farantouri. This is how I imagined Goddess Hera to be: strong, pure and vigilant. I have never encountered any other artist able to give me such a strong sense of the divine.

François Mitterrand

All that passes under our eyes proves that we do not live in a peaceful and harmonious world.

François Mitterrand

The problem is that the East is producing missiles and the West is producing pacifists.

François Mitterrand

Nationalism is war. - in arguing to strengthen the federal powers of the European Union.

François Mitterrand

What I demand you is almost impossible, for one has to defeat our history. And nevertheless, if one does not defeat it, one has to know a rule that imposes itself: nationalism, this is war! War is not solely past, it can be our future, and these are you, ladies and gentlemen deputies, who are the guardians of our peace, our security and our future.

François Mitterrand

What has begun in this evening will not stay for a long time, and because you represent the forces of the world of labour, you, forces of the youth, your victory is inevitable.

François Mitterrand

In such countries, genocide is not too important...

François Mitterrand

There exists in our country a solid continuity of Bonapartism, where the vocation for grandeur of France, the monarchist tradition, and the passion for national unity, the Jacobin tradition get together. (François Mitterrand)

I believe in the forces of the spirit, and I won't leave you.

François Mitterrand

The man of the past.

François Mitterrand

Communism is born out of misery, and if the West does not show more understanding, those people will take up arms and turn to others, that is the Soviet Union.

François Mitterrand

France could have all the socialism its capitalistic economy could support.

François Mitterrand

To every reversal of people's soveregnity, to every disappearance of the Republic corresponds a frank or disguised restitution in force of the regal justice. ‘'Tell me, according to what you judge and I'll tell you who you are.

François Mitterrand

To every reversal of people's soveregnity, to every disappearance of the Republic corresponds a frank or disguised restitution in force of the regal justice. ‘'Tell me, according to what you judge and I'll tell you who you are.” [...] No axiom in politics is more certain than this.

François Mitterrand