More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Grown-ups seem to understand nothing for themselves. It is very boring for children always to have to explain things to them.
Grown-ups are very fond of numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask you the kind of questions that should be asked, such as: ‘What kind of voice does he have?’ ‘What are his favourite games?’ ‘Does he collect butterflies?’ Instead they ask: ‘How old is he? How many brothers has he got? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father earn?’ They really do imagine this is the best way to discover what sort of person he is!
I tell you about him because I don’t want to forget him. It is very sad to forget a friend. Not everyone has had a friend. And if I forget him, I could become like those grown-ups who are only interested in numbers.
‘If someone loves a flower, unique in all the millions and millions of stars, and it makes him happy to look up there and remember his flower, isn’t that enough in itself? He’ll be thinking: “My flower is up there somewhere.” But if a sheep comes along and she eats that flower, for him it would be as if all the starlight was put out! And you say, that’s not important!’
Oh yes, she was quite a coquettish little flower.
You have to expect from everyone only what it is possible for them to do. All authority is based on reason. If you order your people to go and throw themselves in the sea, there would be a revolution. I have the right to expect them to obey me only if my orders are reasonable.’
‘Well in that case, you could judge yourself,’ said the king. ‘That’s very hard indeed, you know, much more difficult than to judge others. It is a wise man who can judge himself.’
The important things in life you cannot see with your eyes, only with your heart.’
‘It is the time you gave to your rose that makes her so important to you.’
‘What I am seeing,’ I thought, ‘is no more than the shell. What is truly important I cannot see.’
‘Eyes are blind,’ the little prince went on. ‘To see things as they are, you have to use your heart.’
If you allow yourself to be tamed, there will be tears.
