Who knew De Gaulle was so quotable? Or perhaps he was just one of those
giants, like Churchill, to whome apocryphal quotes “stick.” Here is a
reader: “I can’t trace this on the Web, Mr Derbyshire, but this is how I
heard it. When President of the Republic, De Gaulle left his sanctum one
day and was walking through the outer office when a subordinate of his
slammed down the phone, exasperated, and cried ‘Il faut exterminer tous les
idiots!’ De Gaulle stopped by the man’s desk, shook his head and said
gravely from his great height: ‘Vaste programme, mon ami, vaste
programme.’”
Personally I like the De Gaulle method of quitting smoking. It works like
this: You announce to everyone within earshot that you are quitting
smoking.
(Unfortunately this method only works if you are the president of a large
country.)