SAYINGS OF CLEMENCEAU

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 42, 19 February 1930, Page 5

SAYINGS OF CLEMENCEAU

Some of Clomenceau's epigrams are miniature biographies. "Poincare," he said, "knows everything, but understands nothing. Briand knows nothing, but understands everything." • ' Of Bolshevism he said, "All opinions are , defensible. All. doctrines -are respectable. But Bolshevism is neither a doctrine nor an opinion." On his eighty-sixthI'anniversary they asked him to pose ■for his photograph. "No gestures," he said. "I count three and then I go." - At a meeting of the War Council at Versailles he waltzed with Sir Henry Wilson down the room to show how young he was. He was a wit, but ho was also a man of action. "Action," he wrote, "is the principle. Action is the means. Action is the aim." . ' He lived an ascetic life. He spent 20 francs (about 3s 4d) a day on his food. His diet was onion soup and hard-boil-edx eggs. He did not smoke, and he drank nothing but cold water. Ho rose regularly at 3_o'clock in the morning. Life dealt hardly with him, but he was defiant. "My wife was unfaithful to me," he said, "my children" have left me; my friends have deserted me. But I have, still got my teeth!" He lived alone in a small house with one servant, never entertaining, never dining out, going to bed early, and rising early. "I prefer to bo alone," he said. "When I am by myself I can scold my servant." .