No one is ever satisfied where he is.
Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little.
"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.
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.
I have good reason to believe that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat.
I hear him at night.
You can judge this old rat.
From time to time you will condemn him to death.
Thus his life will depend on your justice.
But you will pardon him on each occasion; for he must be treated thriftily.
He is the only one we have.