I want the French people to respect values that al...

I perfectly understood President Obama's attitude throughout the French presidential campaign. He had no reason to distance himself from Nicolas Sarkozy. It's the basic solidarity that leaders who worked together owe to each other.

An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home.

Each country has a soul, and France's soul is equality.

I was always concerned with writing to my age at a particular moment. That was the way I would keep faith with the audience that supported me as I went along.

Is he alone who has courage on his right hand and faith on his left hand?

Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.

To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

He has a profound respect for old age. Especially when it's bottled.

There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for age, I missed it coming and going.

I've an enormous respect for my mother who at the age of 39 raised three children, and I grew up with my grandmother in the household. And so it was a really strong household of women - my poor brother! It was great growing up with so many generations of women.

The older generation had greater respect for land than science. But we live in an age when science, more than soil, has become the provider of growth and abundance. Living just on the land creates loneliness in an age of globality.