Antoine De Saint Exupery Quotes

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.

At night, you'll look up at the stars. It's too small, where I live, for me to show you where my star is. It's better that way. My star will be...one of the stars, for you. So you'll like looking at all of them. They'll all be your friends. And besides, I have a present for you. He laughed again.
'Ah, little fellow, little fellow, I love hearing that laugh.'
'That'll be my present. Just that...'
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. For my businessman, they were gold. But all those stars are silent stars. You though, you'll have stars like nobody else.
'What do you mean?'
When you look up at the sky at night, sincle I'll be living on one of them, 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 he laughed again.
...And it'll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, a lot of little bells that know how to laugh.

You're beautiful, but you're empty.

I have nothing to complain of. For three days I have tramped the desert, have known the pangs of thirst, have followed false scents in the sand, have pinned my faith on the dew. I have struggled to rejoin my kind, whose very existence on earth I had forgotten. These are the cares of men alive in every fibre, and I cannot help thinking them more important than the fretful choosing of a night-club in which to spend the evening. Compare the one life with the other, and all things considered this is luxury! I have no regrets. I have gambled and lost. It was all in the day's work. At least I have had the unforgettable taste of the sea on my lips.

I am not talking about living dangerously. Such words are meaningless to me. The toreador does not stir me to enthusiasm. It is not danger I love. I know what I love. It is life.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

How does life build the vital currents that we live from? Where does the magnetic force that pulls me toward this friend's house originate? What are the essential moments that made this presence into a vital pole for me? What are the secret events that mold particular affections and, through them, love of country? How little stir the real miracles cause! How simple are the most vital events! There is so little to say about the instant I want to recall that I have to relive it in a dream and speak to this friend.

Prison is not a mere physical horror. It is using a pickaxe to no purpose that makes a prison.

That is the most difficult thing of all. It is far more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself correctly, then you are truly a man of wisdom.

Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made.

Already Buenos Aires was dyeing the horizon with pink fires, soon to flaunt its diadem of jewels, like some fairy hoard.

But I, alas, do not know how to see sheep through the walls of boxes. Perhaps I am a little like the grown-ups. I have had to grow old.

Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness.

I know a planet inhabited by a red - faced gentleman. He's never smelled a flower. He's never looked at a star. He's never loved anyone. He's never done anything except add up numbers. And all day long he says over and over, just like you, "I'm a serious man!I'm a serious man!" And that puffs him up with pride. But he's not a man at all- he's a mushroom!

I have always learned to distinguish the important from the urgent.

For, to conceited men, all other men are admirers.

Grown-ups love figures ... When you tell them you've made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies? " Instead they demand "How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make? " Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

If I differ from you, far from wronging you, I add something to you.

In giving you are throwing a bridge across the chasm of your solitude.

We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men.

She chose her colors carefully. She dressed slowly, she adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to present herself all rumpled like the poppies. She would appear in the full radiance of her beauty. Oh, yes! She was very flirtatious! And her mysterious adornment lasted for days and days. Then one morning, exactly at sunrise, she suddenly showed herself.

I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams ...

I know the meaning of humility. It is not self-disparagement. It is the motive power of action. If, intending to absolve myself, I plead fate as the excuse for my misfortunes, I subject myself to fate. If I plead treason as their excuse, I subject myself to treason. But if I accept responsibility, I affirm my strength as a man. I am able to influence that of which I form part. I declare myself a constituent part of the community of mankind.

When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.

I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.

One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times ... You know ... when one is so terribly sad, one loves sunsets.

I admire you", said the little prince, with a little shrug of his shoulders, "but what is there about my admiration that interests you so much?

To forget a friend is sad.

I shall never be able to express clearly whence comes this pleasure men take from aridity, but always and everywhere I have seen men attach themselves more stubbornly to barren lands than any other. Men will die for a calcined, leafless, stony mountain. The nomads will defend to the death their great store of sand as if it were a treasure of gold dust.

Respect for humanity! Respect for humanity! If such respect is rooted in the human heart, humanity will eventually establish a social, political, or economic system that reflects it. A civilization is before all else rooted in its substance. At first this was a blind urge for warmth. Then by trial and error man found the way to the fire.
That is probably why, my friend, I have such need of your friendship. I need a companion who - beyond the struggles of reason - respects in me the pilgrim on his way to that fire. I sometimes need to feel the promised warmth ahead of time and to rest somewhere beyond myself in that meeting place that will be ours. [ ... ] Beyond the clumsiness of my words, beyond my defective reasoning, you are ready to see me as a human being. You are ready to honor in me the representative of beliefs, customs, loves. If I differ from you, far from wronging you, I enrich you. You question me as you would a traveler.

And walking on like that, I found the well at daybreak.

What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince, 'is that somewhere it hides a well ...

Nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has - yes or no? - eaten a rose ...
Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves: is it yes or no? Has the sheep eaten the flower? And you will see how everything changes ...
And no grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!

Tout objectif sans plan n'est qu'un souhait. [A goal without a plan is just a wish.]

...In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing

It is a matter of life and death for us; for the lead we gain by day on ships and railways is lost each night.

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.

A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible ...

One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born.

I believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds.

Childhood is another country but also a waiting-room, a state of accommodation and acceptance.

Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.

The flower you single out is a rejection of all other flowers; nevertheless, only on these terms is it beautiful.

Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible. It is to feel shame at the sight of what seems to be unmerited misery. It is to take pride in a victory won by one's comrades. It is to feel, when setting one's stone, that one is contributing to the building of the world.

We are prudent people. We are afraid to let go of our petty reality in order to grasp at a great shadow.

It is your own fault, said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . .

I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words. she perfumed my planet and lit up my life.

I will make you a present of a secret.

A pilot's business is with the wind, and with the stars, with night, with sand, with the sea. He strives to outwit the forces of nature. He stares with expectancy for the coming of the dawn the way a gardener awaits the coming of spring. He looks forward to port as a promised land, and truth for him is what lives in the stars.

I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of crying a bit if one allows oneself to be tamed.

Action and personal happiness have no truck with each other; they are eternally at war.

This water was indeed a different thing from ordinary nourishment. Its sweetness was born of the walk under the stars, the song of the pulley, the effort of my arms. It was good for the heart, like a present.

At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

Real love begins where nothing is expected in return.

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!

My flower is somewhere out there...

I saw the sunset forty-four times!

We live not by things, but by the meaning of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.

So life goes on. For years we plant the seed, we feel ourselves rich; and then come other years when time does its work and our plantation is made sparse and thin. One by one, our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade.

It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.
What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can all enjoy them ... Happiness doesn't lie in the objects we gather around us. To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.

I was sad, but I told them: "I am tired.

Then, as tonight, he had felt lonely, but soon had learnt the bounty of such loneliness. The music had breathed to him its message, to him alone amongst these ordinary folk, whispered its gentle secret. And now the star. Across the shoulders of these people a voice was speaking to him in a tongue that he alone could understand.

One nation is weakened by a victory, another finds new forces in defeat

I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset.

A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out.

In silence alone does a man's truth bind itself together and strike root.

The traveler who crosses a mountain in the direction of a star runs the risk of forgetting which is his guiding star if he concentrates too exclusively on the climbing problems. If he only acts for action's sake, he will get nowhere.

Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.

Will you draw me a sheep?

I have no right to say or do anything that diminishes a man in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him but what he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.

Les contes de fées c'est comme ça.
Un matin on se réveille.
On dit: "Ce n'était qu'un conte de fées..."
On sourit de soi.
Mais au fond on ne sourit guère.
On sait bien que les contes de fées
c'est la seule vérité de la vie.

Fairy tales are like that.
One morning, we wake up
and say, "It was only a fairy tale..."
We put a smile on our face
but deep inside, this isn't what we feel like doing.
It's because we know full well that fairy tales
are the only truth in life.

[The English translation is Lucrèce Riminiac's.]

A man's age represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories.

If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers.

We don't ask to be eternal beings. We only ask that things do not lose all their meaning.

Truths may clash without contradicting each other.

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away

And at night you will look up at the stars. It's too small, where I live, for me to show you where my stars is. It's better that way. My star will just be one of the stars, for you. So you'll like looking at all of them. They'll all be your friends. And, besides, I am going to make you a present...' He laughed again.

'Ah, little prince, dear little prince! I love to hear that laughter!'

'That is my present. Just that. It will be as it was when we drank the water...'

'What do you mean?'

'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. For my businessman, they were gold. But all those stars are silent stars. You, though, you'll have stars like nobody else.'

'What do you mean?'

'When you look up at the sky at night, since I'll be living on one of them, 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 he laughed again.

'And when you're consoled (everyone eventually is consoled), you'll be glad you've known me. You'll always be my friend. You'll feel like laughing with me. And you'll open your window sometimes just for the fun of it...And your friends will be amazed to see you laughing while you're looking up at the sky. Then you'll tell them, "Yes, it's the stars; they always ma

To live is to be slowly born.

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 ...

You must demand from each person what that person can give, - the King replied. - Authority is founded first and foremost upon reason. If you order your people to go and jump into the sea, it would start a revolution. It is because my orders are reasonable that I have the right to expect obedience.

Love is not about staring at each other, but staring off in the same direction.

The dignity of the individual demands that he be not reduced to vassalage by the largesse of others.

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 ...

An administration, like a machine, does not create. It carries on.

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!

And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much. I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.

True pleasure is the pleasure of sharing.

You're beautiful, but you're empty ... One couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.

You talk just like the grown-ups!
That made me a little ashamed.

One much require from each one the duty which each one can perform

There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories.

You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them ... In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night ... You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.

If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows, in all the millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars.

And if not for the caterpillars and butterflies, who will I talk to? You'll be far away. And as for larger creatures, I'm not afraid. I have my thorns ... to protect me.

Tomorrow's truth grows out of yesterday's error.

What sets men at variance is but the treachery of language, for always they desire the same things.

I have a vital need for peace. I seek no personal end, no approval from public opinion. Everything now is a struggle with myself.

I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him ... The land of tears is so mysterious.