Antoine de Saint-Exupery
So the crew fly on with no thought that they are in motion. Like night over the sea, they are very far from the earth, from towns, from trees. The clock ticks on. The dials, the radio lamps, the various hands and needles go though their invisible alchemy. . . . and when the hour is at hand the pilot may glue his forehead to the window with perfect assurance. Out of oblivion the gold has been smelted: there it gleams in the lights of the airport.Collection: Night
I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings." -from the Fox-Collection: Eye
For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three. The closer it gets to four, the happier I'll feel. By four I'll be excited and worried; I'll discover what it costs to be happy! But if you come at any od time, I'll never know when I should prepare my heart... There must be rites.Collection: Heart
The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time. Get into a fist fight, put your mind on the strategy of the fight, and you will not feel the other fellow's punches.Collection: Fighting
The magic of the craft has opened for me a world in which I shall confront, within two hours, the black dragons and the crowned crests of a coma of blue lightnings, and when night has fallen I, delivered, shall read my course in the starts.Collection: Night
I ought not to have listened to her,' he confided to me one day. 'One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace.Collection: Flower
My senses of space, of distance, and of direction entirely vanished. When I looked for the ground I sometimes looked down, sometimes up, sometimes left, sometimes right. I thought I was very high up when I would suddenly be thown to earth in a near vertical spin. I thought I was very low to the ground and I was pulled up to 3,000 feet in two minutes by the 500-horsepower motor. It danced, it pushed, it tossed. . . . Ah! la la!Collection: Distance
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.Collection: Elephants
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near-- Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry." It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ." Yes, that is so," said the fox. But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince. Yes, that is so," said the fox. Then it has done you no good at all!" It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields.Collection: Wheat Fields
A child is not frightened at the thought of being patiently transmuted into an old man.Collection: Children
Are wars... anything but the means whereby a nation's problems are set, where creation is stimulated - there you have adventure. But there is no adventure in heads-or-tails, in betting that the toss will come out of life or death. War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.Collection: Peace
Horror causes men to clench their fists, and in horror men join together.Collection: Men
He who must travel happily must travel light.Collection: Inspirational
if a sheep eats bushes does it eat flowers too? a sheep eats whatever it finds even a flower with thorn? even a flower with thorns. then what's the good of thorns?Collection: Flower
How is it possible for one to own the stars?" "To whom do they belong?" the businessman retorted, peevishly. "I don't know. To nobody.Collection: Stars
What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute.Collection: Freedom
Nothing can match the treasure of common memories.Collection: Memories
There is no growth except in the fulfillment of obligations.Collection: Organization
It was the contemplation of God that created men who were equal, for it was in God that they were equal.Collection: Equality
Treason implies responsibility for something, control over something, influence upon something, knowledge of something. Treason in our time is a proof of genius. Why, I want to know, are not traitors decorated?Collection: Responsibility
What have you come to Earth for?' 'I'm having difficulties with a flower,' the little prince said. 'Ah!' said the snake. And they were both silent.Collection: Flower
When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.Collection: Mystery
Only the children know what they are looking for. They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry.Collection: Children
You will have five hundred million little bells, and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water.Collection: Relationship
One must observe the proper rites.Collection: Rite
Let a man in a garret but burn with enough intensity and he will set fire to the world.Collection: Men
Cries of despair, misery, sobbing grief are a kind of wealth.Collection: Grief
At one time I say to myself: "Surely not! The little prince shuts his flower under her glass globe every night, and he watches over his sheep very carefully . . ." Then I am happy. And there is sweetness in the laughter of all the stars.Collection: Stars
Action and personal happiness have no truck with each other; they are eternally at war.Collection: War
Defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom, and above all futility.Collection: Failure
We must not subject him who creates to the desires of the multitude. It is, rather, his creation that must become the multitude's desire.Collection: Desire
When we think that the machine will harm man, then it is perhaps because we are not yet capable of judging the rapid changes it has brought about. We hardly feel at home in this landscape of mines and power stations. We have just moved into this new home that we have not even finished yet. Everything around us has changed so fast - personal relations, working conditions, habits. Even our state of mind is in turmoil.Collection: Home
The seed haunted by the sun never fails to find its way between the stones in the ground. And the pure logician, if no sun draws him forth, remains entangled in his logic.Collection: Stones
If I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.Collection: Spring
My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored.Collection: Men
If some one loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that's enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars. He tells himself, "My flower's up there somewhere. . . ." But if the sheep eats the flower, then for him it's as if, suddenly, all the stars went out. And that isn't important?Collection: Stars
When you tame someone they become unique to you in all the worldCollection: Unique
Man is but a network of relationships and these alone matter to him.Collection: Men
Nothing comes of severity if there be no leanings towards a change of heart. And if there be natural leanings towards a change of heart, what need for severity?Collection: Heart
How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.What is true is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see clearly.Collection: Heart
It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox. “If, for example, you came at four o’clock in the afternoon, then at three o’clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o’clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . .Collection: Heart
You do not explain the tree by telling of the water it has drunk, the minerals it has absorbed, and the sunlight that strengthened it.Collection: Drunk
Perhaps creativity is fumbling that dance step, or driving the chisel the wrong way into the stone.Collection: Creativity
He sat down. I sat down next to him. And after a silence, he spoke again. 'The stars are beautiful because of a flower you don't see...' I answered, 'Yes, of course.Collection: Beautiful
He who bears in his heart a cathedral to be built is already victorious. He who seeks to become sexton of a finished cathedral is already defeated.Collection: Success
But games always cover something deep and intense, else there would be no excitement in them, no pleasure, no power to stir us.Collection: Power
It is the duty of the ship's captain to make port, cost what it may.Collection: Cost
Why are you drinking? demanded the little prince. "So that I may forget," replied the tippler. "Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who was already sorry for him. "Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head. "Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him. "Ashamed of drinking!Collection: Sorry
Grown ups are certainly very strange.Collection: Strange