Antoine De Saint-Exupéry Quotes

Where are the people?” resumed the little prince at last. “It’s a little lonely in the desert…” “It is lonely when you’re among people, too,” said the snake.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

even so did you feel yourself swept away by that inward migration about which no one had ever said a word to you…A great wind swept through and delivered from the matrix the sleeping prince you sheltered- man within you. You are the equal of the musician composing his music, of the physicist extending the frontier of knowledge…you have reached an altitude where all loves are of the same stuff.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

And the voice spoke even more deliberately: '...but remember what is under the ocean of clouds: eternity.'And suddenly that tranquil world, the world of such simple harmony that you discover as you rise above the clouds, took on an unfamiliar quality in my eyes. All that gentleness became a trap. In my mind's eye I saw that vast white trap laid out, right under my feet. Beneath it reigned neither the restlessness of men nor the living tumult and motion of cities, as one might have thought, but a silence that was even more absolute, a more final peace. That viscous whiteness was turning before my eyes into the boundary between the real and the unreal, between the known and the unknowable. And I was already beginning to sense that a spectacle has no meaning except when seen through a culture, a civilization, a professional craft.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Language is the source of misunderstandings.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

He fell as gently as a tree falls. There was not even any sound..

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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...

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Alone within the vast tribunal that is the stormy sky, the pilot is in contention for his mailbags with three elemental divinities: mountain, sea and storm.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

If you are to be, you must begin by assuming responsibility.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

It's hard luck always having to be a judge.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

If you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Words are the source of misunderstandings.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful.And if not the butterflies– and the caterpillars– who will call upon me? You will be far away. . . as for the large animals– I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws.”And, navely, she showed her four thorns. Then she added:“Don’t linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!”For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower. . .

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

When I opened my eyes I saw nothing but the pool of nocturnal sky, for I was lying on my back with out-stretched arms, face to face with that hatchery of stars. Only half awake, still unaware that those depths were sky, having no roof between those depths and me, no branches to screen them, no root to cling to, I was seized with vertigo and felt myself as if flung forth and plunging downward like a diver.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

How is it possible for one to own the stars?To whom do they belong? the businessman retorted, peevishly.I don't know. To nobody.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Supposing I know of a flower that is absolutely unique, that is nowhere to be found except on my planet, and any minute that flower could accidentally be eaten up by a little lamb, isn't that important? If a person loves a flower that is the only one of its kind on all the millions and millions of stars, then gazing at the night sky is enough to make him happy. He says to himself My flower is out there somewhere. But if the lamb eats the flower, then suddenly it's as if all the stars had stopped shining. Isn't that important?

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

That will be so amusing! You will have five hundred million little bells,and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water...

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

My star will just be one of the stars, for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens...they will all be your friends.-the little prince

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

But in the machine of today we forget that motors are whirring: the motor, finally, has come to fulfill its function, which is to whirr as a heart beats - and we give no thought to the beating of our heart. Thus, precisely because it is perfect the machine dissembles its own existence instead of forcing itself upon our notice.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

if a sheep eats bushes does it eat flowers too?a sheep eats whatever it findseven a flower with thorn?even a flower with thorns.then what's the good of thorns?

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

The grandeur of a profession is...above all, uniting men: there is only one true luxury, that of human relationships.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Maybe those sailors will write bad poems, but the same men would have kept dull diaries, too. The problem has to do not with the evidence but with the witness. The point is not the adventure but the adventurer. Reality cannot be directly rendered. Reality is a pile of bricks that can assume many forms.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

The proof that the little prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

If I am attempting to describe him, it is in order not to forget him. It is sad to forget a friend. Not every one has had a friend.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses. By thy might, there return into us treasures that we had abandoned. By thy grace, there are released in us all the dried-up runnels of our heart. Of the riches that exist in the world, thou art the rarest and also the most delicate - thou so pure within the bowels of the earth! A man may die of thirst lying beside a magnesian spring. He may die within reach of a salt lake. He may die though he hold in his hand a jug of dew, if it be inhabited by evil salts. For thou, water, art a proud divinity, allowing no alteration, no foreignness in thy being. And the joy that thou spreadest is an infinitely simple joy.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

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

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world. It is the same as that on the preceding page, but I have drawn it again to impress it on your memory. It is here that the little prince appeared on Earth, and disappeared.Look at it carefully so that you will be sure to recognise it in case you travel some day to the African desert. And, if you should come upon this spot, please do not hurry on. Wait for a time, exactly under the star. Then, if a little man appears who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer questions, you will know who he is. If this should happen, please comfort me. Send me word that he has come back.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Everyone seems inspired by some religion that promises fulfillment. Within the clashing words we are all expressing the same impulses. We are divided over methods which are the fruit of our reasoning, but not over our goals, which are identical.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while (the flower to little prince)

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

The truth for a man, it's what makes him a man.

~ Antoine De Saint-Exupéry