Best 418 quotes of Antoine De Saint-exupery on MyQuotes

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

A child is not frightened at the thought of being patiently transmuted into an old man.

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

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.

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

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

Aimer, ce n'est point nous regarder l'un l'autre, mais regarder ensemble dans la meme direction. English Translation: To love is not to look at each other, But to look together in the same direction.

All men have the stars," he answered, "but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travellers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all the stars are silent. You--you alone--will have the stars as no one else has them--

All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming - a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness.

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

A man has many parts, he is virtually everything, and you are free to select in him that part which pleases you.

A man's age represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories.

An administration, like a machine, does not create. It carries on.

And at night I love to listen to the stars. It is like five hundred million little bells.

And that heart which was a wild garden was given to him who only loved trim lawns. And the imbecile carried the princess into slavery.

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

And they heard the roaring thunder of a third brilliantly lighted express. "Are they pursuing the first travelers?" demanded the little prince. "They are pursuing nothing at all," said the switchman. "They are asleep in there, or if they are not asleep they are yawning. Only the children are flattening their noses against the windowpanes." "Only the children know what they are looking for," said the little prince. "They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry..." "They are lucky," the switchman said.

A pilot's business is with the wind, and with the stars, with night, with sand, with the sea. He strives to outwit the forces of nature. He stares with expectancy for the coming of the dawn the way a gardener awaits the coming of spring. He looks forward to port as a promised land, and truth for him is what lives in the stars.

Are wars... anything but the means whereby a nation's problems are set, where creation is stimulated - there you have adventure. But there is no adventure in heads-or-tails, in betting that the toss will come out of life or death. War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.

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

A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out.

A smile is often the key thing.One is paid with a smile. One is rewarded with a smile. One is brightened by a smile. And the quality of a smile can make one die.

At one time I say to myself: "Surely not! The little prince shuts his flower under her glass globe every night, and he watches over his sheep very carefully . . ." Then I am happy. And there is sweetness in the laughter of all the stars.

But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference.

But games always cover something deep and intense, else there would be no excitement in them, no pleasure, no power to stir us.

But if you tame me, my life will be filled with sunshine. I'll know the sound of footsteps that will be different from all the rest. Others send me back underground. Yours will call me out of my burrow like music.

But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.

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.

Commonly, people believe that defeat is characterized by a general bustle and a feverish rush. Bustle and rush are the signs of victory, not of defeat. Victory is a thing of action. It is a house in the act of being built. Every participant in victory sweats and puffs, carrying the stones for the building of the house. But defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom. And above all of futility.

Cries of despair, misery, sobbing grief are a kind of wealth.

Defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom, and above all futility.

Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness.

Demagoguery enters at the moment when, for want of a common denominator, the principle of equality degenerates into the principle of identity.

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

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

Ephemeral" It means 'which is in danger of speedy disappearance.

Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings.

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.

Flying is a man's job and its worries are a man's worries.

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.

For instance, if you come at four in the afternoon, I'll begin to be happy by three. The closer it gets to four, the happier I'll feel. By four I'll be excited and worried; I'll discover what it costs to be happy! But if you come at any od time, I'll never know when I should prepare my heart... There must be rites.

For there is but one problem - the problem of human relations. We forget that there is no hope or joy except in human relations.

For, to conceited men, all other men are admirers.

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.

Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You are free to be that man, but not another.

Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, which is to be what one is and no other.

Friendship is born from an identity of spiritual goals - from common navigation toward a star.

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.

Good taste" is a virtue of the keepers of museums. If you scorn bad taste, you will have neither painting nor dancing, neither palaces nor gardens.

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.