Quotes from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ·  118 pages

Rating: (1M votes)


“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.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince, 'is that somewhere it hides a well...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage



“I am looking for friends. 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. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. 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....”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“People have forgotten this truth," the fox said. "But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“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.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage



“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“You're beautiful, but you're empty...One couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“You see, one loves the sunset when one is so sad.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“People where you live," the little prince said, "grow five thousand roses in one garden... yet they don't find what they're looking for...

They don't find it," I answered.

And yet what they're looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water..."

Of course," I answered.

And the little prince added, "But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage



“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.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“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”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“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 . . . And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, 'Yes, the stars always make me laugh!' And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage



“So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

Yes, that is so," said the fox.

But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

Yes, that is so," said the fox.

Then it has done you no good at all!"

It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“You're beautiful, but you're empty. No one could die for you.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“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.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of crying a bit if one allows oneself to be tamed.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage



“When someone blushes, doesn't that mean 'yes'?”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“In those days, I didn't understand anything. I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words. She perfumed my planet and lit up my life. I should never have run away! I ought to have realized the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions. Flowers are so contradictory! But I was too young to know how to love her.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“I did not know how to reach him, how to catch up with him... The land of tears is so mysterious.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“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.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage


“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.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quote from The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage



About the author

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Born place: in Lyon, France
Born date June 29, 1900
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“So what? Somebody’s always had control over information, and others have always tried to steal it. Read Machiavelli. As technology changes, sneakiness finds new expressions.” Martha”
― quote from The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage


“Okay; they’ve got to be kids—but why girls?” Fontaine asked. “People are even more protective about little girls.” Tenenbaum winced and turned back to the microscope, muttering, “For some reason girls take sea-slug implant better than boys.” Fontaine wondered what little boy they’d experimented on to determine that and what had become of him. But he didn’t really care. He didn’t. And in fact—there was one place that could supply children for all sorts of things. “So—just girls, eh? That’s okay; that’ll just be fewer bunks in the orphanage.”
― John Shirley, quote from BioShock: Rapture


“I can’t believe you were going to call me a liar and take my place under the guillotine. Next time I try to save you, woman, you better stay saved. (Fury)”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Dead After Dark


“I can't see the future. But when I dreamed of the future, he was the one I was tied to.”
― Nancy Straight, quote from Blood Debt


“And so I realise that I want for myself the vibrant substratum of the word repeated in a Gregorian chant. I’m aware that everything I know I cannot say, I know only by paining or pronouncing syllables blind of meaning. And if here I have to use words for you, they must create an almost exclusively bodily meaning. I’m battling with the ultimate vibration. To tell you my substratum I make a sentence of words composed only of the now-instants.”
― Clarice Lispector, quote from The Stream of Life


Interesting books

Destiny: Step into Your Purpose
(664)
Destiny: Step into Y...
by T.D. Jakes
Half Lost
(8.5K)
Half Lost
by Sally Green
My Sweet Orange Tree
(17.4K)
My Sweet Orange Tree
by José Mauro de Vasconcelos
Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior
(414)
Get Out of Your Own...
by Mark Goulston
J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey
(168.2K)
J.D. Salinger's Fran...
by J.D. Salinger
Muerte de tinta
(62K)
Muerte de tinta
by Cornelia Funke

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.