Top 54 Quotes & Sayings by Nicolas Sarkozy

I want to wage war against illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, unfair competition, communitarianism, delinquency.

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

The French people need to have all the facts so they can choose. And I won't be running away from it or hiding from it.

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.

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.

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.

You won't hear from me again.

I hope that France - and all of Europe - we would take an initiative for the year 2012 to be the year of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

I love life too much to be bitter.

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

France now has a new president and he must be respected. I assume full responsibility for this defeat.

You are the eternal France, I love you.

I committed myself totally, fully, but I didn't succeed in convincing a majority of French... I didn't succeed in making the values we share win.

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

I don't give any gifts to the rich.

It's disrespectful to tell the French in the morning that you're going to reduce the debt, in the evening that you're not going to make any savings, and the next morning, after thinking about it, that you're going to spend more.

I'm ready to become a French person amongst French people, and more than ever I have the love for my country deeply ingrained in my heart.

Francois Hollande is an intelligent man. I do not have a problem with him. The only thing is, he has never held office at the state level. Honestly, can you imagine Francois Hollande as president of France? Imagine it!

France is the country with the highest taxes in Europe along with Sweden... something of which I am not proud.

I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar.

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.

Come, and the only limits to what you'll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent.

I understand that people might be poor if they don't have any work, but I don't accept that someone is poor if they've worked really hard.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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

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

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.

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

Each time there is a news story, sometimes that gives ideas to people who then turn into criminals.

France is the country with the highest taxes in Europe along with Sweden...something of which I am not proud.

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.

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.

To be a young Gaullist is to be a revolutionary!

The French like burgers, Madonna and Miami Vice.

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,.

If living in France bothers some people, they should feel free to leave the country.

Nothing is more destructive than the gap between people's perceptions of their own day-to-day economic well-being and what politicians and statisticians are telling them about the economy

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.

Being able to find a compromise is about being brave and serving France.

We are all hoping that he will recover his legendary vitality as quickly as possible, ... Chi-rac! Chi-rac!

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

There are remuneration packages that will no longer be tolerated because they bear no relation to merit. That those who create jobs and wealth may earn a lot of money is not shocking. But that those who contribute to destroying jobs and wealth also earn a lot of money is morally indefensible.

Franchement, quand je survole certains pays européens (les éoliennes) ne donne pas envie. (Frankly, when I fly over some European countries, their turbines don't fill me with envy.)

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.

What made America great was her ability to transform her own dream into hope for all mankind.

The goal is to meet the challenge of racial interbreeding.

We must defend freedom of expression and if I had to chose, I prefer the excess of caricature over the excess of censure.

Europe is not a choice, it is a necessity, but it needs to be rethought, refounded.

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

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.