Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Best Quotes

Antoine was quite a unique character. Apart from his remarkable books, most of which were crafted from his experiences, he left food for thought in the form of quotes. Most of these quotes are from his books. There are so many of them. But we will focus on his most notable quotes.

Love

Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself.

This quote is about love. Love leads to self-discovery. Sometimes, we do not fully know ourselves and what we are capable of doing, how much we can tolerate, our threshold for pain, and how happy we can become until we love. When we love, we find out things about ourselves. Loving is like having a map of own self.

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed

This particular quote alludes to the longevity of love. Love is forever, or should be, at least. This quote is from Antoine’s best seller: ‘The Little Prince.’ These were the fox’s words to the protagonist. This became his reminder that love lasts.

To become someone’s friend, we must first understand that person. To understand someone, one must first tame that person. Our friends become the people we have tamed and therefore understand. Friends are to be loved. Love survives through thick and thin. We become forever responsible for what we love because love does not, or at least should not, wane.

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

Time is one of the few currencies that love uses. This one is from ‘The Little Prince.’ We show the people we love how much we love them by the amount of time we spent with and on them. You just cannot say you love someone, yet you hardly spend time with or on that person.

The little prince spends so much time taming his beloved flower. It is this that shows how beloved this flower of his is.

You can do many other things to convince someone that the love is there, but if you do not spend time to prove it, it just would not work. Why? Because time is one of the major currencies of love, without which the ‘love’ might as well not be there.

If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers.

Love is beautiful. This aptly describes it. What you love becomes your star. And if just happens to be flowers, be prepared to see a riot of flowers when you look up to the sky at night. Now imagine a sky filled with vibrant colors, so bright and so beautiful you would be tempted to reach out and touch it. Love is just… beautiful.

Friendship

To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend.

Friends ought to be loved; love is not a short-term thing. I mean, how how can a friend be forgotten? No way. To forget someone means that you never really saw that person as a friend. Friends bring joy to us. Even when they are gone, we still remember the memories that will be there to remind us. To forget someone one once referred to as a friend is sad. We instead bank on the memories.

Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy ready-made things in the shops. But since there are no shops where you can buy friends, men no longer have any friends.

Sad. So sad. Friends don’t come ready-made. Sometimes one has got to tame, in order to understand and then become friends. Friendship is built, and it doesn’t just sprout out of nowhere. Men seem not to be patient enough or patient all for things to take their natural course. They want good things, but they want them instant or quickly, like ready-made products. Friendships don’t work that way. If you cannot sit through the process, then you are not ready for what is to come.

To become someone’s friend, one must first understand that person, and to understand someone, that person must first be tamed. This is a process, and no stage can be skipped. It is either one is all in or not.

Nature

One day, I watched the sun setting fourty-four times… you know when one is terribly sad… one loves sunsets.

Nature washes sorrows away. It takes attention away from wishy-washy things and makes people reconnect with what matters. To watch the sun do its thing forty-four times is a lot. This is an obvious case of disconnection and trying to reconnect. Observing nature brings people closer to what matters. The farther away we are from nature, the more disconnected from reality we get. Go back to nature and see it has its arms wide open to welcome you.

It is all a great mystery… Look up at the sky and you’ll see how everything changes.

Nature can be mysterious. And sometimes, we need to put aside our collective curiosity to just enjoy the moment and go with the flow. The more we observe, the clearer things become and the more we understand. The more we understand, the more we reconnect with what matters. Go back to nature, your answers might just be waiting for you right there.

Government

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

Government is continuous. This is what many governments in the world seem not to understand. Or maybe they pretend not to understand this. Administrations, like a chain, run into each other progressively. Cutting things off abruptly would result in regression. Build on the good things others have started. Try to correct the ones they have gotten wrong. Do not just leave them and start yours and maybe end up not completing yours as well. Government is continuous.

Greatness

Let a man in a Garret but burn with enough intensity, and he will set fire to the world.

The right level of motivation will lead someone to achieve much more than is expected. See people like rubber bands that can be stretched beyond what we normally see. This is not your cue to stretch and stretch until people lose it and break. Stretch beyond what you think is your limit. You are capable of achieving much more than you give yourself credit for.

Dreams

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

Great things started with dreams that seemed too big. Every great thing that has been achieved on Earth came first as figments of people’s imaginations and thoughts. Thoughts or ideas build. All one just has to do is to work on those ideas; otherwise, they just remain ideas. If you envision something to be much greater than it appears to be, do something to transform that thing. It can be done.

Conceit

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

Arrogant people are too self-absorbed to notice things going on around them. Conceit just has a way of shutting people’s eyes to what matters. Conceited people are emotionally blind or bereft. They are just aloof.

This quote was referring to the conceited man in Antoine’s ‘The Little Prince.’ A man so self-absorbed, he barely took notice of anything happening around him. A man so arrogant, he referred to himself as the most handsome on his planet, even though it was only him inhabiting the same planet. Conceited people breathe and eat praises, nothing else.

Patience and Process

Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.

Sometimes, one just has to trust the process, especially when the expected result is going to be rewarding. Sometimes, to get to where we want, we have to trust the process.

Caterpillars become butterflies. Caterpillars aren’t exactly helpful to flowers. However, butterflies are very important to flowers. Flowers understand this, and when the caterpillars come with their trouble, they remind themselves that soon the butterflies will take over. This is a consolation, something worth holding on to.

Grown-ups

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.

It’s hard to like people who lack self-awareness. It is ironic that grown-ups, the ones we expect to know better, having spent more time on Earth, are the ones aloof. It makes children look at them with pity. It makes them also wish that they do not become like the typical grown-up when they grow up. It makes them want better for themselves because it is hard to like a group of people with their priorities wrong.

All grown-ups were once children… but only a few of them remember it.

Grown-ups always seem to forget what should and what should not be matters of consequence. They just mix things up. It’s like they grow up and just lose touch with reality. Then they begin to see children in a certain light, forgetting that even they were once children.

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

This is so ironic. This is a typical example of roles reversed. It seems it is the grown-ups who now have to go to children to fund meaning and reconnect with what matters. This is because grown-ups have their interests set on the things they would term the matters of consequence. They have simply got their list of priorities upside down.

Grown-ups are certainly very strange.

From Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘The Little Prince.’ Grown-ups have their priorities upside down. That is indeed strange because they are expected to know better. If they knew better, then tell me why they would go on to take pills to prevent them from getting thirsty and therefore save them some time, only to spend that time by a freshwater spring. This is just dumbfounding.

Children

Only the children know what they are looking for.

Children seem to be more aware of their environment than grown-ups. The grown-ups have things mixed up. The shell interests them a lot, much more than what is on the inside. Grown-ups are concerned about aesthetics. To them, the aesthetics come first, second, and third before they even deem it fit to look at the heart.

The Heart

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

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.

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.

These three quotes about the heart are very much related. The heart would reveal what the eyes would not. Sometimes, the eyes lead people into believing things that aren’t true. The heart does not lie. We should learn to look more with our hearts. We should learn to shut off the noise so that what is on the outside comes in. We should focus more on what is on the inside, and we should focus on the heart. What is felt by the heart matters a lot, most times, much more than what can be seen or touched.

Uniqueness

All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guided. For others they are no more than the 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.

Everyone was born unique. Everyone is [or should at least be] unique. We are all different from each other. This is what makes living very interesting. Imagine a world where everybody behaved alike. That would be one big boring world. Everyone has where he or she shines brightest. Find yours. Yours is unique to you. Key into yours. Go on and shine. We define our stars and make them what they should be. Someone’s star is not yours, and yours isn’t the next person’s. Find what makes you an individual and shine brightest.

Self-assessment

 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.

A wise person would tell themself the truth. People would go on to tell everyone but themselves the truth. It’s always hilarious to witness. As you are pointing a finger at someone, there are four pointing right back at you. Anyone who tries to tell themself the truth and succeeds in doing so is indeed wise. To be an armchair critic might be easy. It’s a different story when the time comes to address oneself truthfully.

Note to Self

I am who I am and I have the need to be.

Focus on what is important. Know yourself and act accordingly. One has no business trying to figure others out if one is yet to figure out oneself. Know who you are. Ascertain if you are who you have to be. If you are achieving a lot less than what you were built for, you know exactly what to do.

Ambition

No one is ever satisfied where he is.

It is always better elsewhere until you go there. Strive to be more, but do so with common sense. Contentment can coexist with healthy ambition. There is a popular saying about the grass always appearing better elsewhere. No one is encouraging someone to be content with and in mediocrity. For all it’s worth, strive to be better and do better. However, you can do so without looking down on yourself and your abilities.

Pride

People where you live, grow five-thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for… And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose.

You don’t need to own the whole world to be appreciative. Be happy with what is yours. Strive to do better by all means. But never for one second be ungrateful for what you have. Dissatisfaction should push you into appreciating what you have while striving to do better. Dissatisfaction should not make you loathe what you have, no matter how inconsequential or little you think it is

In fact, one can achieve much more and still be left grossly unsatisfied. Whereas, one can find meaning in just that one thing that is yours while striving to do better.

Tears

It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.

People cry to the extent they have been hurt. It is hard to know, and it is hard to tell exactly. It is personal. That is why it is not always so easy to comfort someone when that person has been hurt and is crying. Not knowing where the shoe pinches that person the most, just leaves you equally sad but mostly unable to help. That is why it is best to sometimes, shut up and just listen to them talk and take them into your arms. Sometimes, words do too much, and silence is just perfect for that moment.

Happiness

What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can a enjoy them… Happiness doesn’t lie in the objects we gather around us. To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.

Happiness lies more within than without. Searching for happiness without is most times a fool’s task. If it’s not within, it cannot be found without. Happiness won’t come from the shell. It would come from what is on the inside. The more one searches for happiness on the outside, the farther away from happiness that person gets. True happiness comes from within. One doesn’t even really need to search for it. All one just has to do is to open one’s eyes.

Words

Words are the source of misunderstandings.

Sometimes, words aren’t needed, and silence is just enough. Words are important, but not for every occasion. Words can be misleading sometimes. We should always read the room to know when words are or aren’t needed. Sometimes, silence works the magic.

Rest

Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.

I love this one. Where exactly are we all rushing to? Hey, close that tab and let your hair down. Breathe. People actually better when they are rested. Productivity drops a great deal when people are stressed. Why work in reverse? Rest sufficiently, take some time off, and unwind. That way, you will get clearer perspectives on what you are working on. This would make one work faster and more efficiently. This quote from Antoine is as powerful as it is practical and relatable.

Memories

And when your sorrow is comforted [time soothes all sorrows] you will be content that you have known me.

People part from their friends. But, the memories remain. The goodbyes aren’t ways easy. In the moment of goodbyes, even when we are asked to see reasons, the overwhelming emotions and tears blind us momentarily. However, much later, when we have come to terms with the parting and the tears are gone, the overwhelming emotions aren’t overwhelming anymore as we remember the good times we had. Memories are very soothing. And sometimes, they are all we’ve got to hold on to.

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