Antoine de Saint-Exupery Quotes
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If a composer suffers from loss of sleep and his sleeplessness induces him to turn out masterpieces, what a profitable loss it is!
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When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.
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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.
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Perfection is reachednot when there's nothing to add, but when there's nothing to take away.
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People where you live," the little prince said, "grow five thousand roses in one garden... yet they don't find what they're looking for... They don't find it," I answered. And yet what they're looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water..." Of course," I answered. And the little prince added, "But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.
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If you are to be, you must begin by assuming responsibility. You alone are responsible for every moment of your life, for every one of your acts.
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How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.
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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.
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Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.
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Demagoguery enters at the moment when, for want of a common denominator, the principle of equality degenerates into the principle of identity.
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Truth is not that which is demonstrable but that which is ineluctable.
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It is the duty of the ship's captain to make port, cost what it may.
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If it is true that wars are won by believers, it is also true that peace treaties are sometimes signed by businessmen.
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One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up.
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We understand … that what constitutes the dignity of a craft is that it creates a fellowship, that it binds men together and fashions for them a common language.
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A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out.
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For I do not want any one to read my book carelessly. I have suffered too much grief in setting down these memories. Six years have already passed since my friend went away from me, with his sheep. If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure that I shall not forget him. 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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In every crowd are certain persons who seem just like the rest, yet they bear amazing messages.
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A child is not frightened at the thought of being patiently transmuted into an old man.
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A man's age represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories.
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When I find a woman attractive, I have nothing at all to say. I simply watch her smile. Intellectuals take apart her face in order to explain it bit by bit, but they no longer see the smile.
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People have stars, but they aren't the same. For travelers, the stars are guides. For other people, they're nothing but tiny lights. And for still others, for scholars, they're problems... But all those stars are silent stars. You, though, you'll have stars like nobody else... since I'll be laughing on one of them, for you it'll be as if all the stars are laughing. You'll have stars that can laugh!... and it'll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, a lot of tiny bells that know how to laugh.
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I am a fox", the fox said.
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To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend.