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

"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.

Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while.

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!

It is a good thing to have had a friend, even if one is about to die.

The Earth is not just an ordinary planet!
One can count, there, 111 kings (not forgetting, to be sure, the Negro kings among them), 7000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7,500,000 tipplers, 311,000,000 conceited men — that is to say, about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups.

Kings do not own, they reign over.

Conceited people never hear anything but praise.

Children should always show great forbearance toward grown-up people.

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

"Your planet is very beautiful," he said.
"Has it any oceans?"
"I couldn't tell you," said the geographer.
"Ah!" The Little Prince was disappointed.
"Has it any mountains?"
"I couldn't tell you," said the geographer.
"And towns, and rivers, and deserts?"
"I couldn't tell you that, either."
"But you are a geographer!"
"Exactly," the geographer said.
"But I am not an explorer.
I haven't a single explorer on my planet.
It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts.
The geographer is much too important to go loafing about.
He does not leave his desk."

All roads lead to the abodes of men.

I shall command the sunset.
But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable.

I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower.
He has never looked at a star.
He has never loved any one.
He has never done anything in his life but add up figures.
And all day he says over and over, just like you:
'I am busy with matters of consequence!'
And that makes him swell up with pride.
But he is not a man — he is a mushroom!

"One day," you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!"
And a little later you added: "You know — one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..."
"Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"
But the little prince made no reply.

"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.