152 Inspiring Quotes by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

It is not for us to forecast the future, but to shape it.

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.

The dignity of the individual demands that he be not reduced to vassalage by the largesse of others.

To love is not to look at one another: it is to look, together, in the same direction.

Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings.

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

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

You're beautiful, but you're empty.... No one could die for you.

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.

Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than iteself.

The one thing that matters is the effort.

If you are to be, you must begin by assuming responsibility. You alone are responsible for every moment of your life, for every one of your acts.

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

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

It was the contemplation of God that created men who were equal, for it was in God that they were equal.

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.

What does tamed mean? It's something that's been too often neglected. It means to create ties.

You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.

I shall never again admire a merely brave man.

Peace dies when the framework is ripped apart. When there is no longer a place that is yours in the world. When you know no longer where your friend is to be found.

The field of consciousness is tiny. It accepts only one problem at a time.

To be a man is to feel that one's own stone contributes to building the edifice of the world.

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.

We understand … that what constitutes the dignity of a craft is that it creates a fellowship, that it binds men together and fashions for them a common language.

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

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

Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.

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

Real love begins where nothing is expected in return.

Look at the sky. Ask yourselves: Has the sheep eaten the flower, yes or no? And you will see how everything changes.

Only the children know what they are looking for.

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.

Living is being born slowly. It would be a little too easy if we could borrow ready-made souls.

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

It is always in the midst, in the epicenter, of your troubles that you find serenity.

You know... when you are sad you love the sunsets.

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.

If I were to command a general to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not obey, that would not be the general's fault. It would be mine.

One day, I watched the sun setting forty-four times......You know...when one is so terribly sad, one loves sunsets.

The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.

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.

A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.

Perhaps creativity is fumbling that dance step, or driving the chisel the wrong way into the stone.

I was too young to know how to love her.

The soldier's body becomes a stock of accessories that are not his property.

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

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

There is no hope of joy except in human relations.

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.

We are prudent people. We are afraid to let go of our petty reality in order to grasp at a great shadow.

I will appoint captains to rule my cities, for it is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

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.

True love begins when nothing is looked for in return.

We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men.

Nothing can match the treasure of common memories.

If you want to build a boat, do not instruct the men to saw wood, stitch the sails, prepare the tools and organize the work, but make them long for setting sail and travel to distant lands.

No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.

I remembered the fox. One runs the risk of crying a bit if one allows oneself to be tamed.

Love does not cause suffering: what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love's opposite.

Experience will guide us to the rules. You cannot make rules precede practical experience.

Navigating by the compass in a sea of clouds over Spain is all very well, it is very dashing, but -- you want to remember that below the sea of clouds lies eternity.

If I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.

You will have five hundred million little bells, and I shall have five hundred million springs of fresh water.

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

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

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

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.

If France is to be judged, judge her not by the effects of her defeat but by her readiness to sacrifice herself.

That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it's because you're truly a wise man.

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.

"I wonder," he said, "whether the stars are set alight in heaven so that one day each one of us may find his own again."

Attitude is a paintbrush. It colors everything!

True love is visible not to the eyes but to the heart, for eyes may be deceived.

He who must travel happily must travel light.

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

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.

The airplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.

Nothing comes of severity if there be no leanings towards a change of heart. And if there be natural leanings towards a change of heart, what need for severity?

What place would you advise me to visit now?" he asked. "The planet Earth," replied the geographer. "It has a good reputation.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

When one is building a ship, one does not begin with gathering timber and cutting planks, but rather by arousing in people the yearning for the great wide sea.

Mad is the man who is forever gritting his teeth against that granite block, complete and changeless, of the past.

True, it is evil that a single man should crush the herd, but see not there the worse form of slavery, which is when the herd crushes out the man.

You're not a man, you're a mushroom!

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit.

He who never says "no" is no true man.

The essential things in life are seen, not with the eyes but with the heart.

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

Truths may clash without contradicting each other.

It is the duty of the ship's captain to make port, cost what it may.

As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.

If you tame me, it would be as if the sun came to shine on my life.

The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.

I don't believe you! Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons.

Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.

I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset.

The flower you single out is a rejection of all other flowers; nevertheless, only on these terms is it beautiful.

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.

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures-in this century as in others our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.

What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute.

You do not explain the tree by telling of the water it has drunk, the minerals it has absorbed, and the sunlight that strengthened it.

To become a man is to be responsible; to be ashamed of miseries that you did not cause.

Man is a knot into which relationships are tied.

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

We live not by things, but by the meaning of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.

But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.

You cannot plant an acorn in the morning, and expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of an oak.

Night, when words fade and things come alive.

Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?

It is not a question of living dangerously. That formula is too arrogant, too presumptuous. I don't care much for bull-fighters. It's not the danger I love. I know what I love. It is life itself.

Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

We are forever responsible for that which we have tamed.

One is a member of a country, a profession, a civilization, a religion. One is not just a man.