Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Quotes

It's a question of discipline,' the little prince told me later on. 'when you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. you must be sure you pull up the baobabs regularly, as soon as you can tell them apart from the rosebushes, which they closely resemble when they're very young. It's very tedious work, but very easy.

And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me.

Quand tu regarderas le ciel, la nuit, puisque j'habiterai dans l'une d'elles, puisque je rirais dans l'une d'elles, alors ce sera pour toi comme si riaient tous les etoiles. Tu auras toi, les etoiles qui savent rire.

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

Les fleurs sont si contradictoires ! Mais j'étais trop jeune pour savoir l'aimer.

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

"الراشدون يحبون الأرقام. وحين تحدثهم عن صديق جديد، فهم لا يسألونك قطّ عن الأمور الجوهريّة. لا يقولون لك أبداً "كيف هي رنّة صوته؟ ما هي ألعابه المفضّلة؟ هل يجمع الفراشات؟" بل يسألونك: "كم عمره؟ كم عدد إخوته؟ ما وزنه؟ كم دخل أبيه؟ وعندها فقط يظنون أنهم عرفوه.

Il ne savait pas encore s'il souffrait parce qu'il suivait une pente et que l'avenir venait à lui sans qu'il eût à s'en saisir. Quand on s'abandonne on ne souffre pas. Quand on s'abandonne même à la tristesse on ne souffre plus.

Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas. Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness. I take it for granted that to create a tree I condemn a seed to rot. If the first act of resistance comes too late it is doomed to defeat. But it is, nevertheless, the awakening of resistance. Life may grow from it as from a seed.

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

Je me souvenais du renard. On risque de pleurer un peu si l'on s'est laissé apprivoiser...

Il est bien plus difficile de se juger soi-même que de juger autrui . Si tu réussis à bien te juger, c'est que tu es un véritable sage.

Where are the men?” the little prince at last took up the conversation
again. “It is a little lonely in the desert. . . ”
“It is also lonely among men,” the snake said.

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

"The stars are beautiful, because of a flower that cannot be seen... The desert is beautiful," the little prince added. And that was true. 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... "What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well..." I was astonished by a sudden understanding of that mysterious radiation of the sands.