Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Language is the source of misunderstandings.”

“I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him... The land of tears is so mysterious.”

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

“All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems... But all these stars are silent. You-You alone will have 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 will be laughing when you look at the sky at night..You, only you, will have stars that can laugh! And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me... You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure... It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh”

“I don't believe you! Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons...”

“He who must travel happily must travel light.”

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

“Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me...”

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

“Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.”

“Così il piccolo principe addomesticò la volpe. E quando l'ora della partenza fu vicina: « Ah! » disse la volpe, « piangerò.» « La colpa è tua », disse il piccolo principe, « io non ti volevo far del male, ma tu hai voluto che ti addomesticassi...» « E' vero », disse la volpe. « Ma piangerai! » disse il piccolo principe. « E' certo », disse la volpe. « Ma allora che ci guadagni? » « Ci guadagno », disse la volpe, « il colore del grano. » «Da te, gli uomini», disse il piccolo principe, «coltivano cinquemila rose nello stesso giardino... e non trovano quello che cercano...» «Non lo trovano», ripetei. «E tuttavia quello che cercano potrebbe essere trovato in una sola rosa o in un po' d'acqua...» «Certo», confermai. E il piccolo principe soggiunse: «Ma gli occhi sono ciechi. Bisogna cercare col cuore.»”

“La mia vita è monotona. Io do la caccia ale galline, e gli uomini danno la caccia a me. Tutte le galline si assomigliano, e tutti gli uomini si assomigliano. E io mi annoio perciò. Ma se tu mi addomestichi, la mia vita sarà come illuminata. Conoscerò un rumore di passi che sarà diverso da tutti gli altri. Gli altri passi mi fanno nascondere sotto terra. Il tuo mi farà uscire dalla tana, come una musica. E poi, guarda! Vedi, laggiù in fondo, dei campi di grano? Io non mangio il pane e il grano, per me è inutile. I campi di grano non mi ricordano nulla. E questo è triste! Ma tu hai i capelli color dell'oro. Allora sarà meraviglioso quando mi avrai addomesticato. E amerò il rumore del vento nel grano...» disse la volpe.”

“Tu, fino ad ora, per me, non sei che un ragazzino uguale a centomila ragazzini. E non ho bisogno di te. E neppure tu hai bisogno di me. Io non sono per te che una volpe uguale a centomila volpi. Ma se tu mi addomestichi, noi avremo bisogno l'uno dell'altro. Tu sarai per me unico al mondo, e io sarò per te unica al mondo.”

“Devo pur sopportare qualche bruco se voglio conoscere le farfalle, sembra che siano così belle...”

“No one has tamed you and you haven't tamed anyone.You're the way my fox was. He was just a fox like a hundred thousand others. But I've made him my friend, and now he's the only fox in the world.”

“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.”

“Vivi muito tempo no mundo das pessoas grandes. Vi-as de bem perto.Não fiquei com muito melhor opinião delas.”

“Die großen Leute verstehen nie etwas von selbst,und für die Kinder ist es zu anstrengend, ihnen immer und immer wieder erklären zu müssen.""As pessoas grandes nunca percebem nada sozinhas e uma criança acaba por se cansar de ter que estar sempre a explicar-lhes tudo.”

“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.”

“A single radio post still heard him. The only link between him and the world was a wave of music, a minor modulation. Not a lament, no cry, yet purest of sounds that ever spoke despair.”

“No destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him.”

“Even though human life may be the most precious thing on earth, we always behave as if there were something of higher value than human life.”

“Action and personal happiness have no truck with each other; they are eternally at war.”

“The strong are strengthened by reverses; the trouble is that the true meaning of events scores next to nothing in the match we play with men. Appearances decide our gains or losses and the points are trumpery. And a mere semblance of defeat may hopelessly checkmate us.”

“If a composer suffers from loss of sleep and his sleeplessness induces him to turn out masterpieces, what a profitable loss it is!”

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

“In every crowd are certain persons who seem just like the rest, yet they bear amazing messages.”

“I shall never again admire a merely brave man.”

“It is a matter of life and death for us; for the lead we gain by day on ships and railways is lost each night.”

“You're not a man, you're a mushroom!”

“Voortaan moet je zeggen hoe laat je komt, want als je dan zegt om vier uur begin ik om drie uur al gelukkig te worden”

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

“You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on. “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me.”

“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.”

“He is among those beings of great scope who spread their leafy branches willingly over broad horizons. To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible. It is to know shame at the sight of poverty which is not of our making. It is to be proud of a victory won by our comrades. It is to feel, as we place our stone, that we are contributing to the building of the world.”

“Denn sie wollte nicht, dass er sie weinen saehe. Es war eine so stolze Blume.”

“For I do not want any one to read my book carelessly. I have suffered too much grief in setting down these memories. Six years have already passed since my friend went away from me, with his sheep. If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure that I shall not forget him. To forget a friend is sad. Not every one has had a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown-ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures.”

“Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than iteself. ”

“Nothing, in truth, can ever replace a lost companion. Old comrades cannot be manufactured. There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories, so many bad times endured together, so many quarrels, reconciliations, heartfelt impulses. Friendships like that cannot be reconstructed. If you plant an oak, you will hope in vain to sit soon under its shade.For such is life. We grow rich as we plant through the early years, but then come the years when time undoes our work and cuts down our trees. One by one our comrades deprive us of their shade, and within our mourning we always feel now the secret grief of growing old.If I search among my memories for those whose taste is lasting, if I write the balance sheet of the moments that truly counted, I surely find those that no fortune could have bought me. You cannot buy the friendship of a companion bound to you forever by ordeals endured together.”

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

“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.”

“Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”

“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.”

“C'est véritablement utile puisque c'est joli.It is truly useful since it is beautiful. ”

“I looked about me. Luminous points glowed in the darkness. Cigarettes punctuated the humble meditations of worn old clerks. I heard them talking to one another in murmurs and whispers. They talked about illness, money, shabby domestic cares. And suddenly I had a vision of the face of destiny. Old bureaucrat, my comrade, it is not you who are to blame. No one ever helped you to escape. You, like a termite, built your peace by blocking up with cement every chink and cranny through which the light might pierce. You rolled yourself up into a ball in your genteel security, in routine, in the stifling conventions of provincial life, raising a modest rampart against the winds and the tides and the stars. You have chosen not to be perturbed by great problems, having trouble enough to forget your own fate as a man. You are not the dweller upon an errant planet and do not ask yourself questions to which there are no answers. Nobody grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the astronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning.”

“Nós não pedimos para ser eternos, mas apenas para não ver os atos e as coisas perderem subitamente o seu sentido. O vazio que nos rodeia faz-se então sentir...”

“Si tu aimes une fleur qui se trouve dans une étoile, c'est doux, la nuit, de regarder le ciel.”

“Tu sais… quand on est tellement triste on aime les couchers de soleil…-Le jour des quarante-trois fois tu étais donc tellement triste? Mais le petit prince ne répontit pas.”

“Mais les yeux sont aveugles. Il faut chercher avec le cœur.”

“a last glimmer of intelligence (p. 79)”