Nicolas Sarkozy Quotes

We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes and charges. The aim is to tax pollution - notably fossil fuels - more, and tax work less

A page is turning for me. I won't be candidate in legislative elections, nor in any elections to come.

I am showing solidarity while being different. Or if you prefer, I am being different while being in solidarity.

Francois Hollande is the president of the republic, he must be respected. I want to wish him good luck in the midst of these tests.

If you come to France and you wear a veil, if you go to one of the administrative buildings, then that's not acceptable. If you don't want your wife to be examined by a male doctor, then you're not welcome here. France is a country that's open.

What made America great was her ability to transform her own dream into hope for all mankind. America did not tell the millions of men and women who came from every country in the world and who -- with their hands, their intelligence and their heart -- built the greatest nation in the world: 'Come, and everything will be given to you.' She said: 'Come, and the only limits to what you'll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent.

The French people have chosen change. This change I will put into place.

From the very beginning, the American dream meant proving to all mankind that freedom, justice, human rights and democracy were no utopia but were rather the most realistic policy there is and the most likely to improve the fate of each and every person.

To be a young Gaullist is to be a revolutionary!

I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar,

I love life too much to be bitter.

We want to put a stop to tax havens. We want results on this, with a list of tax havens and a series of consequences.

Success and social promotion are not some right that anybody can claim after queuing at some [government office]. It is better: it is a right, a right that one can merit because of one's sweat.

Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished.

I am not a man of my party. I do not talk only to socialists and union leaders.

I fought for the values of responsibility, and I'm not a man who does not accept his responsibilities.

Perhaps the mistake I made at the start of my mandate is not understanding the symbolic dimension of the president's role and not being solemn enough in my acts. A mistake for which I would like to apologise or explain myself and which I will not make again. Now, I know the job.

I am deeply worried because we are seeing an unleashing of violence by 2,000 to 3,000 thugs who come to smash and loot. My objective is to avoid mistakes by the police, so that people can protest in safety.

In a presidential campaign, you can't lie. You can't hide what you are and what you want. You can't hide what kind of President you'll be. You can't keep on talking about nothing indefinitely and committing to nothing, you can't keep running away from debate, masking the challenges.

The goal is to meet the challenge of racial interbreeding ...

What is dangerous is not minarets, but basements and garages that hide clandestine places of worship. Thus we must choose between mosques, where we know that the rules of the republic are respected, and secret places where extremism has been developing for too long,.

Not to intermarry racially is bad for the survival of the country.

France must not be the only country to have a high level of welfare protection and few obligations incumbent on those who receive benefits.

Nothing - I mean nothing - and no-one - I mean no-one - will stop me going through to the end, and trying to be ready for the challenge of 2007.

Canadians are friends and Quebecers are my family. What France knows deep down is that within this great Canadian people, there is a Quebec nation. I do not see how proving my family, brotherly love for Quebec should be strengthened by defying Canada.

With the world in turmoil and doubt, the American people, faithful to the values that have always defined America's identity, have expressed with force their faith in progress and the future. At a time when we must face huge challenges together, your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond.

Europe is right to tell us to reduce this [France's budget] deficit and spend less. Europe is right to demand this of us but cannot at the same time demand us to increase our dues.

We live in a world where people don't all have the same scruples, where all blows can be given, and where, in order to down somebody, all means can be used. Nothing will lead me astray from the path that I have chosen.