Antoine de Saint-Exupery Quotes
-
When you tame someone they become unique to you in all the world.
-
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
-
If I were to command a general to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.
-
She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her.
-
Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness.
-
No truth is proved, no truth achieved, by argument, and the ready-made truths men offer you are mere conveniences or drugs to make you sleep.
-
Although human life is priceless, we always act as if something had an even greater price than life... but what is that something?
-
The injustice of defeat lies in the fact that its most innocent victims are made to look like heartless accomplices. It is impossible to see behind defeat, the sacrifices, the austere performance of duty, the self-discipline and the vigilance that are there - those things the god of battle does not take account of.
-
Each man carries within him the soul of a poet who died young.
-
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.
-
Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.
-
He who must travel happily must travel light.
-
The one thing that matters is the effort.
-
We do not pray for immortality, but only not to see our acts and all things stripped suddenly of all their meaning; for then it is the utter emptiness of everything reveals itself.
-
What did I care about my hammer, about my bolt, about thirst or death? There was, on one star, on one planet, on mine, the Earth, a little prince to be consoled! I took him in my arms. I rocked him. I told him, 'The flower you love is not in danger...I'll draw you a muzzle for your sheep...I'll draw you a fence for your flower...I' I didn't know what to say. How clumsy I felt! I didn't know how to reach him, where to find him...It's so mysterious, the land of tears.
-
No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.
-
To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.
-
There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories.
-
What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute.
-
It is the savor of bread broken with comrades that makes us accept the values of war.
-
Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.
-
I am looking for friends. What does that mean - tame?" "It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties." "To establish ties?" "Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.
-
I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him... The land of tears is so mysterious.
-
Flying is a man's job and its worries are a man's worries.