Antoine de Saint-Exupery Quotations

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

The one thing that matters is the effort.

I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.

A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.

I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.

The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.

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

The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.

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

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.

A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance.

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

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

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become - to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.

The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.

For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.

Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.

Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made.

Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know the joy of attaining it.

War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.

One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up.

We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men.

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

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures-in this century as in others our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.

No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.

A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten,' he does not say 'My men were beaten.'

The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.

Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.

He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.

Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.

Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?

Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

On a day of burial there is no perspective -- for space itself is annihilated. Your dead friend is still a fragmentary being. The day you bury him is a day of chores and crowds, of hands false or true to be shaken, of the immediate cares of mourning. The dead friend will not really die until tomorrow, when silence is round you again. Then he will show himself complete, as he was -- to tear himself away, as he was, from the substantial you. Only then will you cry out because of him who is leaving and whom you cannot detain.

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.

Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

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

What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute. There is no liberty except the liberty of some one making his way towards something. Such a man can be set free if you will teach him the meaning of thirst, and how to trace a path to a well. Only then will he embark upon a course of action that will not be without significance. You could not liberate a stone if there were no law of gravity -- for where will the stone go, once it is quarried?

Let your dream devour your life, not your life devour your dream.

Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence.

When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.

Sitting in the flickering light of the candles on this kerchief of sand, on this village square, we waited in the night. We were waiting for the rescuing dawn - or for the Moors. Something, I know not what, lent this night a savor of Christmas. We told stories, we joked, we sang songs. In the air there was that slight fever that reigns over a gaily prepared feast. And yet we were infinitely poor. Wind, sand, and stars. The austerity of Trappists. But on this badly lighted cloth, a handful of men who possessed nothing in the world but their memories were sharing invisible riches.

It is in your act that you exist, not in your body. Your act is yourself, and there is no other you.

The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.

Every person that comes into our life comes for a reason; some come to learn and others come to teach.

True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have.

More wisdom is latent in things as they are than in all the words men use.

As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.

You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night...You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.

Experience will guide us to the rules. You cannot make rules precede practical experience.

We are prudent people. We are afraid to let go of our petty reality in order to grasp at a great shadow.

It's quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes. [Fr., Il est tres simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.]

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

What value has compassion that does not take its object in its arms?

Real love begins where nothing is expected in return.

The first stars tremble as if shimmering in green water. Hours must pass before their glimmer hardens into the frozen glitter of diamonds. I shall have a long wait before I witness the soundless frolic of the shooting stars. In the profound darkness of certain nights I have seen the sky streaked with so many trailing sparks that it seemed to me a great gale must be blowing through the outer heavens.

One's suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields - even to sadness.

A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us.

It is always in the midst, in the epicenter, of your troubles that you find serenity.

The wind in the grain is the caress to the spouse; it is the hand of peace stroking her hair.

The important thing is to strive toward a goal which is not immediately visible. That goal is not the concern of the mind, but of the spirit.

If you are to be, you must begin by assuming responsibility. You alone are responsible for every moment of your life, for every one of your acts.

True love begins when nothing is looked for in return.

The dignity of the individual demands that he be not reduced to vassalage by the largesse of others.

Grown-ups love figures... When you tell them you've made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies? " Instead they demand "How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make? " Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.

Each man carries within him the soul of a poet who died young.

Man is a knot into which relationships are tied.

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible. It is to feel shame at the sight of what seems to be unmerited misery. It is to take pride in a victory won by one's comrades. It is to feel, when setting one's stone, that one is contributing to the building of the world.

"What place would you advise me to visit now?" he asked. "The planet Earth," replied the geographer. "It has a good reputation."

I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.

If you want to build a ship, teach the men to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work; teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.

There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories.

Although human life is priceless, we always act as if something had an even greater price than life... but what is that something?

Of course, I love you,' the flower said to him. 'If you were not aware of it, it was my fault.

The flower you single out is a rejection of all other flowers; nevertheless, only on these terms is it beautiful.

Language is the source of misunderstandings.

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.

No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.

…if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world…if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow

GOOD MORNING," said the little prince. "Good Morning," said the salesclerk. This was a salesclerk who sold pills invented to quench thirst. Swallow one a week and you no longer feel any need to drink. "Why do you sell these pills?" "They save so much time," the salesclerk said. "Experts have calculated that you can save fifty-three minutes a week." "And what do you do with those fifty-three minutes?" "Whatever you like." "If I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked," the little prince said to himself, "I'd walk very slowly toward a water fountain...

I am who I am and I have the need to be.

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.