Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — Quotes from Author's Books

Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at.
If he had been master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or even two hundred times, without ever having to move his chair.

No one is ever satisfied where he is.

One only understands the things that one tames.

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars.
I would bring myself down to his level.
I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties.
And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.

The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years.
For millions of years the sheep have been eating them just the same.

Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little.

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

"If you want a friend, tame me..."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox.
"First you will sit down at a little distance from me — like that — in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing... But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..."

If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure that I shall not forget him.

In the candle, the essential is not the wax, but the light.

It was wrong of you to come. You will suffer. I shall look as if I were dead; and that will not be true...

The snake twined himself around the little prince's ankle, like a golden bracelet.
"Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came," the snake spoke again.
"But you are innocent and true, and you come from a star..."
The little prince made no reply.
"You move me to pity — you are so weak on this Earth made of granite," the snake said.
"I can help you, some day, if you grow too homesick for your own planet.
I can — "

This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope.
That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.
On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration.
But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said.

My friend never explained anything to me.
He thought, perhaps, that I was like himself.

And the people have no imagination.
They repeat whatever one says to them...

"What does that mean — 'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox.
"It means to establish ties.".
"'To establish ties'?"
"Just that," said the fox.