The Little Prince

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

Only children know what they are looking for.

"One must command from each what each can perform," the king went on. "Authority is based first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to jump into the ocean, there will be a revolution. I am entitled to command obedience because my orders are reasonable."

"Then my sunset?" insisted the little prince, who never let go of a question once he had asked it.

"You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But I shall wait, according to my science of government, until conditions are favorable."

If you want to make a bond, you are to take the risk of tearing.

But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...

It is truly useful since it is beautiful.

Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

"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.

Language is the source of misunderstandings.

You're beautiful, but you're empty.... No one could die for you.

"What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well."

“…the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612. This asteroid has only once been seen through a 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. …Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.”

When he has finished getting himself ready in the morning, he must go get the planet ready.

"Then you shall judge yourself," the king answered. "That is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.

If somebody wants a sheep, that is proof that somebody exists.

"I should never have listened to her," he confided to me one day, "One should never listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance."

I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset...

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

Dessine-moi un mouton!

"Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"

But the little prince made no reply.