History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads. People get the history they deserve.

The quotation rejects the idea that historical outcomes are mechanically predetermined (“fatalism” or “determinism”). It asserts that, at certain turning points, decisive action by a small number of individuals can rupture the apparent logic of events and create genuinely new possibilities. The final sentence—“People get the history they deserve”—adds a moral and civic dimension: collective outcomes reflect a society’s choices, courage, and political maturity, not merely impersonal forces. In de Gaulle’s worldview, this aligns with a belief in leadership, national agency, and the capacity of will—especially in crisis—to redirect a nation’s trajectory.