Antoine de Saint-Exupery Quotes
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The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.
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True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.
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A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten', he does not say 'My men were beaten.'
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The flower you single out is a rejection of all other flowers; nevertheless, only on these terms is it beautiful.
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Navigating by the compass in a sea of clouds over Spain is all very well, it is very dashing, but - you want to remember that below the sea of clouds lies eternity.
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On ne sait jamais! One never knows!
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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.
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The strong are strengthened by reverses; the trouble is that the true meaning of events scores next to nothing in the match we play with men. Appearances decide our gains or losses and the points are trumpery. And a mere semblance of defeat may hopelessly checkmate us.
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It is the savor of bread broken with comrades that makes us accept the values of war.
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To be a man is to feel that one's own stone contributes to building the edifice of the world.
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Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.
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True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have.
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To forget a friend is sad. Not every one has had a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown−ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures.
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Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed.
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I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.
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That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it's because you're truly a wise man.
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Good taste" is a virtue of the keepers of museums. If you scorn bad taste, you will have neither painting nor dancing, neither palaces nor gardens.
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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?
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War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.
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It is in your act that you exist, not in your body. Your act is yourself, and there is no other you.
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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!
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You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.
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You'll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those who went through it before you, and say to yourself, 'What they could do, I can do.'
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A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.