Georges Clémenceau

Who was Georges Clémenceau?

Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman who led the nation in the First World War. A leader of the Radical Party, he played a central role in politics during the Third Republic. Clemenceau served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. He was one of the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Nicknamed "Père la Victoire" (Father Victory) or "Le Tigre" (The Tiger), he took a harsh position against defeated Germany, though quite not as much as President Poincaré, and won agreement on Germany's payment of large sums for reparations.

Famous Quotes:

• A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but hes not a man of action. It is as if a tennis player before returning a ball stopped to think about his views of the physical and mental advantages of tennis. You must act as you breathe.
• It is far easier to make war than to make peace.
• When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isnt a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.
• On September 17, 1914, Erzberger, the well-known German statesman, an eminent member of the Catholic Party, wrote to the Minister of War, General von Falkenhayn, We must not worry about committing an offence against the rights of nations nor about violating the laws of humanity. Such feelings today are of secondary importance? A month later, on October 21, 1914, he wrote in Der Tag, If a way was found of entirely wiping out the whole of London it would be more humane to employ it than to allow the blood of A SINGLE GERMAN SOLDIER to be shed on the battlefield!
• A man's life is interesting primarily when he has failed -- I well know. For it's a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
• When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.
• War is too important a matter to be left to the military.
• A mans life is interesting primarily when he has failedI well know. For its a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
• America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.
• A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action.. You must act as you breathe.