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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.
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
Come down to their level and abandon disscussion of deeper matters for the cosmetic and distracting
When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.
This is beautiful!
When you tell them that you have 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 many brothers has 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.
Never asking the questions that really tell about a person
To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone 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…
He thought, perhaps, that I was like himself. But I, alas, do not know how to see sheep through the walls of boxes. Perhaps, I am a little like the grown-ups. I have had to grow old.
Grow old but do not lose your imagination
‘When you’ve finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care.
It is very tedious work,’ the little prince added, ‘but very easy.’
‘Oh, no!’ I cried. ‘No, no, no! I don’t believe anything. I answered you with the first thing that came into my head. Don’t you see—I am very busy with matters of consequence!’
Too busy with "matters of consequence" to be engaged and thoughtful. Dismissive
‘I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved anyone. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all day he says over and over, just like you: ‘I am busy with matters of consequence!’ And that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man—he is a mushroom!’
coquettish
I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. 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…’
Deeds not words
‘Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform,’ the king went on. ‘Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable.’
Expect of people what they are capable of or it is you that is in the wrong
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.’
For, to conceited men, all other men are admirers.
But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.
lugubrious
‘Forget that I am ashamed,’ the tippler confessed, hanging his head.
Been there
Little golden objects that set lazy men to idle dreaming. As for me, I am concerned with matters of consequence. There is no time for idle dreaming in my life.’
No time even to sleep, or learn about the stars
I am concerned with matters of consequence: I am accurate.’
Oh man does this resonate
‘And what good does it do you to be rich?’ ‘It makes it possible for me to buy more stars, if any are discovered.’
And on and on
When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you get an idea before anyone else, you take out a patent on it: it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them.’
Take take take. When in reality we only borrow
‘The orders have not been changed,’ said the lamplighter. ‘That is the tragedy! From year to year the planet has turned more rapidly and the orders have not been changed!’
Metaphor for the ever increasing demand to make work the be all end all. The unrelenting "pace of progress"
Nevertheless, he is the only one of them all who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else besides himself.’
Get out of self
‘Geographies,’ said the geographer, ‘are the books which, of all books, are most concerned with matters of consequence. They never become old-fashioned. It is very rarely that a mountain changes its position. It is very rarely that an ocean empties itself of its waters. We write of eternal things.’
Eternal things do not exist
‘It is also lonely among men,’ the snake said.
Yikes. Cutting
‘It is an act too often neglected,’ said the fox. ‘It means to establish ties.’
To be tamed
‘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…’
To tame is to establish ties
‘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 anymore. If you want a friend, tame me…’
There is no time to understand anything
‘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. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she
...more
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’
Let the heart lead
‘What is essential is invisible to the eye,’ the
‘No one is ever satisfied where he is,’ said the switchman.
This is the only way to happiness though
‘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.’
Just go go go. Move through this world rapidly asleep
‘Yes,’ I said to the little prince. ‘The house, the stars, the desert—what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!’
What matters in life cannot be seen
This water was indeed a different thing from ordinary nourishment. Its sweetness was born of the walk under the stars, the song of the pulley, the effort of my arms.
It was made sweet by the journey
‘But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart…’
The eyes are not imbued with discernment and intention
But I was not reassured. I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed…
‘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!’ And he laughed again.
‘You understand…it is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy.’
