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.)