Antoine de Saint-Exupery- an outstanding French writer and pilot.
Exupery's most famous book is The Little Prince. It is easy to read Exupery's books, the writer demonstrates the philosophy of action and life, tries to find answers to questions that torment many people: “how to live right?”, “What to do?”.
We have collected 12 quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, we are sure that they will touch you and make you think about many things.
- In man, I love light. I don't care about the thickness of the candle. The flame will tell me if the candle is good.
- Childhood is this huge land, where everyone comes from! Where am I from? I come from my childhood, as if from some country ...
- The past is what wove your present. There's nothing to be done about him. Accept it and don't move mountains in it. They still can't be moved.
- Are you concerned about the future? Build today. You can change everything. Grow a cedar forest on a barren plain. But it is important that you do not construct cedars, but plant seeds.
- Working only for the sake of material goods, we are building a prison for ourselves. And we lock ourselves in loneliness, and all our riches are dust and ashes, they are powerless to deliver to us what is worth living for. You live in your actions, not in your body. You are your actions and there is no other you.
- You are looking for meaning in life; but its only purpose is for you to finally come true.
- People get into fast trains, but they themselves do not understand what they are looking for, so they do not know peace, they rush one way or the other ... And all in vain ... Eyes are blind. You have to search with your heart.
- It is important to go, and not to arrive somewhere, for we only come to death.
- To love is not to look at each other, to love is to look in the same direction.
- The one who looks into my mouth, waiting for me to speak, I do not need. I go and look for a light in people like mine ...
- You are mired in trifles and do not realize that a moment can contain a whole life.
You can only be brothers in some ways, and you can't be brothers at all.
We breathe deeply only when we are connected with our brothers and we have a common goal.
water
Water! You have no taste, no color, no smell, you cannot be described, you enjoy you without understanding what you are. You are not only necessary for life, you are life. With you, a bliss spreads throughout the being, which cannot be explained only by our five senses. You return to us the strength and properties on which we have already put an end to it. With Your mercy, the dried-up springs of the heart open again.
war
War is not a real feat, war is a surrogate for feat.
children
The child is not horrified by the fact that he patiently prepares an old man in himself. He is a child and he plays his childish games.
Friend
Friends who are ready to help us are found quickly. It is much more difficult to earn friends who are waiting for help from us.
My friend, I need you like a mountain peak where you can breathe freely!
No, no one can replace a fallen comrade. You can't make old friends overnight.
Do not check friends and loved ones. They still won't stand the test.
friendship
It takes a long time to cultivate friendship before a friend lays claim to you.
fools
Fool, you just made it up, you know it yourself. "Then it's all a lie...
If a blockhead reads poetry, he is mistaken for a poet. They believe that he likes old, holey parquet, they believe that he loves mongoose. They believe that he is flattered by the trust of a viper walking under the table along his legs. They give him their heart - a wild garden, and he likes only mowed lawns. And the blockhead takes the princess into slavery.
Spirit
There is only one problem - the only one in the world - to return spiritual content to people, spiritual cares.
Only the spirit fertilizes the mind. The Spirit throws into him the seed of the coming creation. The mind will complete the rest.
life
I was waiting for life to give me a sign - and did not wait.
That's how life works. At first we become richer, because for many years we planted trees, but then the years come when time turns our labors into dust and cuts down the forest. One by one, friends leave, depriving us of refuge. And, grieving for the departed, you secretly also grieve that you yourself are getting old.
They die only for what makes life worth living.
Although human life is more precious than anything in the world, we always act as if there is something even more valuable in the world than human life… But what?
What about common sense? His job is to explain life, let it get out as you like.
I waited for life to give me a sign, and did not wait.
To live means to be born slowly.
The life of the Spirit is sometimes interrupted. Only the life of Reason is continuous or almost continuous.
Order is created by life, but it does not create life itself.
You live in your actions, not in your body. You are your actions and there is no other you.
Although human life is more precious than anything in the world, we always act as if there is something even more valuable in the world than human life... But what?..
temptation
Temptation is the temptation to yield to Reason when the Spirit is asleep.
true
The truth of a man is what makes him a man.
Truth is not what is provable, truth is simplicity.
Truth is what makes the world simpler, not what turns it into chaos.
logics
Anything can be proven logically.
Love
To love is not to look at each other, but together, in the same direction.
Love is not disputed. She is.
True love begins where you expect nothing in return.
People
In our world, all living things gravitate towards their own kind, even flowers, bowing in the wind, mix with other flowers, all swans are familiar to the swan - and only people become isolated in solitude.
The greatness of any craft, perhaps, first of all lies in the fact that it unites people: for there is nothing in the world more precious than the bonds that unite man with man.
There are too many people in the world who have not been helped to wake up.
dreams
A goal without a plan is just a dream.
wisdom
Judge yourself. This is the hardest part. It is much harder to judge oneself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise.
insight
Illumination means only that a slowly prepared path was suddenly opened to the Spirit.
defeat
Victory weakens the people; defeat awakens new strength in him.
betrayal
If a person betrayed someone because of you, you should not associate life with him, sooner or later he will betray you because of someone.
nature
The earth helps us to understand ourselves, as no books can help us. For the earth resists us.
The earth itself knows what kind of grain it needs.
A favorite flower is, first of all, a rejection of all other flowers.
Never listen to what the flowers say. You just have to look at them and breathe in their scent.
A beautiful tree that has its roots deep in the soil.
The fruit must ripen, then it will become sweet.
It is only thanks to the wind that a sailboat is free on the high seas.
Job
Working only for the sake of material goods, we are building a prison for ourselves.
intelligence
Reason acquires value only when it serves love.
Liberty
What does it mean to release? if in the wilderness I free a man who does not aspire to anywhere, what will his freedom be worth?
courage
I don't value physical courage cheaply; life taught me what true courage is: it is the ability to resist the condemnation of the environment.
death
It is necessary that what you die for is worth the death itself.
Death is something huge. This is a new chain of connections with the thoughts, things, habits of the deceased. This is a new world order. It looks like nothing has changed, but in reality everything has changed. The pages in the book are the same, but its meaning has become different. To feel death, we must imagine those hours when we need the deceased. That's when we miss it. Imagine hours when he might need us. But he doesn't need us anymore. Imagine an hour of friendly visitation. And feel its emptiness. We are used to seeing life in perspective. But on the day of the funeral, there is no perspective, no space.
They die for the house, but not for things and walls. They die for the cathedral - not for the stones. They die for the people - not for the crowd.
perfection
As you can see, perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when nothing more can be cut off.
fear
Fear arises when you lose confidence that you are you.
happiness
When we comprehend our role on earth, even the most modest and inconspicuous, then only we will be happy. Only then will we be able to live and die in peace, for what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death.
secret
Here is my secret, it is very simple: only the heart is vigilant. You can't see the most important thing with your eyes.
patience
Never lose your patience - this is the last key that opens the door.
yearning
Longing is when you crave something, you don’t know what.
smile
Often a smile is the main thing. Thank you with a smile. A smile is rewarded. They give you life with a smile. And there is a smile for which you will go to death.
Human
To be human means to feel that you are responsible for everything.
There is only one true value - this is the connection of man with man.
Penal servitude is where the blows of the pick are meaningless, where labor does not unite man with man.
It is easy to establish order in society by subordinating each of its members to unshakable rules. It is easy to bring up a blind man who, without protesting, would obey a guide or the Koran. How much more difficult it is to free a person by teaching him to rule over himself.
He was free, yes - too free, he walked the earth too easily. He lacked the burden of human relations, from which the tread becomes heavier, he lacked tears, goodbyes, reproaches, joys - everything that a person cherishes ...
The basis of our unity is a Person who is higher than each of us.
You built your quiet little world, walled up all the exits to the light, as termites do. You curled up in a ball, took refuge in your philistine prosperity, in inert habits, in a musty provincial way of life, you erected this wretched stronghold and hid from the wind, from the surf and the stars. You do not want to bother yourself with great tasks, and it took a lot of work for you to forget that you are a person. No, you are not an inhabitant of a planet rushing through space, you do not ask questions that have no answer: you are simply an inhabitant of the city of Toulouse. No one grabbed you in time and held you back, and now it's too late. The clay from which you are molded has dried up and hardened, and nothing in the world will be able to awaken in you a sleeping musician, or a poet, or an astronomer, who, perhaps, once lived in you.
Only the fulfillment of one's duty allows a person to become something.
Man is just a knot of relationships. And only relationships are important for a person.
on other topics
Infinity cannot be found. It is created within ourselves. And running away didn't get anyone anywhere.
The doctor, examining the patient, does not listen to the groans: it is important for the doctor to heal the person. The doctor serves the laws of the universal.
The only luxury I know is the luxury of human interaction.
The victim loses all grandeur if it becomes only a parody of the victim or a suicide.
I have always hated the role of observer. What am I if I don't take part? To be, I must participate.
You can’t sit still - what if there is an oasis somewhere nearby?
Before you receive, you must give, and before you can live in a house, you must build it.
You are forever responsible for everyone you have tamed.
Here's a box for you. And in it sits such a lamb as you want.
There is such a firm rule, - the Little Prince told me after. - Get up in the morning, wash your face, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery one of the most sincere and talented writers. In his books, as well as in life, love for his wife, nostalgia for childhood and many other feelings and experiences, deep and personal, are closely intertwined. In the short time that fate took him, he managed to publish a large number of stories that were awarded the most prestigious literary awards.
Undoubtedly, the allegorical fairy tale " A little prince”, in which the author has invested great love for all mankind and soul. This touching story is deeply autobiographical: the image of the hero is closely connected with the personality of Antoine himself, with what he experienced in childhood. It is this naive sincerity that won the hearts of millions of readers around the world.
For you, the best quotes from the books of Saint-Exupery, which contain all the life experience and heart of the famous French writer.
About adults and children
1. I'm afraid to become like adults who are not interested in anything but numbers.
2. All adults were children at first, only few of them remember this.
3. Adults are very fond of numbers. When you tell them that you have a new friend, they will never ask about the most important thing. They will never say: “What kind of voice does he have? What games does he like to play? Does he catch butterflies? They ask: “How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does he weigh? How much does his father earn? And after that they imagine that they recognized the person.
4. Children should be very lenient towards adults.
5. Adults never understand anything themselves, and it is very tiring for children to endlessly explain and interpret everything to them.
6. When you say to adults: “I saw a beautiful house made of pink brick, it has geraniums in the windows, and pigeons on the roof,” they cannot imagine this house in any way. They need to be told: “I saw a house for a hundred thousand francs,” and then they exclaim: “What a beauty!”
About love7. Only the heart is vigilant. You can't see the most important thing with your eyes.
8. True love begins where nothing is expected in return.
9. To love is not to look at each other, to love is to look together in the same direction.
10. Hearing human steps, I always run away and hide. But your walk will call me like music, and I will come out of my shelter. And then - look! See, over there, in the fields, the wheat is ripening? I don't eat bread. I don't need spikes. Wheat fields mean nothing to me. And it's sad! But you have golden hair. And how wonderful it will be when you tame me! Golden wheat will remind me of you. And I will love the rustle of ears in the wind ...
11. People get into fast trains, but they themselves do not understand what they are looking for, - said the Little Prince, so they do not know peace, they rush in one direction, and then in another ... - And all in vain ... Eyes are blind. You have to search with your heart.
12. Do not mix love with the desire to take possession, which brings so much torment. Contrary to popular belief, love does not hurt. The instinct of ownership is tormenting.
13. A favorite flower is, first of all, a rejection of all other flowers.
14. If you love without hope of reciprocity, be silent about your love. In silence it will become fruitful.
15. Separation will teach you to love for real.
About friendship
16. People no longer have enough time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in stores. But there are no shops where friends would trade, and therefore people no longer have friends.
17. My friend never explained anything to me. Maybe he thought I was just like him.
18. It is very sad when friends are forgotten. Not everyone had a friend. And I'm afraid to become like adults who are not interested in anything but numbers.
19. It's good to have a friend, even if you're about to die.
20. You are still just a little boy for me, just like a hundred thousand other boys. And I don't need you. And you don't need me either. I am only a fox for you, exactly the same as a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we will need each other. You will be the only one in the world for me. And I will be alone for you in the whole world ...
21. I recognize friendship by the absence of disappointments, true love by the impossibility of being offended.
22. This was before my Fox. He was no different from a hundred thousand other foxes. But I made friends with him, and now he is the only one in the whole world.
23. - People have forgotten this truth, - said the Fox, - but do not forget you are forever responsible for all those you have tamed.
About the eternal24. - And where are the people? The little prince finally spoke again. It's lonely in the desert...
“It’s also lonely among people,” said the snake.
25. Although human life is more precious than anything in the world, we always act as if there is something even more valuable in the world than human life… But what?
26. You live in your actions, not in your body. You are your actions and there is no other you.
27. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise.
28. When we comprehend our role on earth, even the most modest and inconspicuous, then only we will be happy.
298. You are looking for meaning in life; but its only purpose is for you to finally come true.
30. They always grieve about one thing - about time; which left, leaving nothing on its own, about the gift of bygone days.
To be human means to feel that you are responsible for everything.
To be human is to feel responsible. To feel shame in front of poverty, which, it would seem, does not depend on you. Be proud of every victory won by comrades. Realize that by laying a brick, you are helping to build the world.
At the heart of any civilization lies a striking paradox: a person balances the power of the crowd
Here is my secret, it is very simple: only the heart is vigilant. You can't see the most important thing with your eyes.
Every ascent is painful. Rebirth is painful. Not exhausted, I can not hear the music. Suffering, efforts help the music to sound.
Difficulties
The main thing is to go. The road does not end, and the goal is always a deception of the wanderer's eyesight: he climbed to the top, but he already sees another ...
Path
Yes, there is a time for everything - a time to choose what you will sow, but after you have made a choice, it is time to grow a crop and enjoy it.
Time
If people have not seen the stars and it is in your power to build the Milky Way for them with unprecedented spans and arches, having spent a fortune on construction, do you really think that you have thrown money away?
Dream
If a traveler, climbing a mountain, is too busy with every step and forgets to consult the guiding star, he risks losing it and going astray.
path, direction
If you know how to judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise.
If I have changed and do not change anymore, if I do not move and do not strive for anything, how am I different from the dead? The view that opened up to you from the mountain is a joy as long as the legs that worked for it ache, as long as the body is happy to rest.
Life is an ongoing birth, and you accept yourself as you become.
Life taught me what true courage is: it is the ability to resist the judgment of the environment.
Courage
Remember: an insoluble problem, an irreconcilable contradiction force you to overcome yourself, and therefore grow up - otherwise you will not be able to cope with them.
Difficulties
Knowing does not mean taking possession of the wreckage of a glorious fortress or a light canoe that can be untied and taken anywhere; knowledge is the same life, it has unexpected revelations, it has its own laws of internal gravity, it has its own silence, as meaningful as the silence of the heavenly spheres.
Knowledge
Truth is what simplifies the world, not what creates chaos, it is a language that singles out the common from the diversity.
True
Truth that does not contain a "point of view" is either cheap or a paradox that will never bind to anything.
Truth, Knowledge, Relationships
Truth gives birth to something unlike it.
True
Happiness does not lead to the search for happiness. If you look for it, you sit down and you will sit, not knowing which way to go. But here you work tirelessly, you create, and as a reward they make you happy.
Happiness
By the time it's time to die, I want to be something else.
Transformation, change
No matter how urgently necessary our actions may seem, we have no right to forget in the name of what we are acting, otherwise our actions will remain fruitless.
A book is a trap, an opportunity to catch what you long to overtake, comprehend and understand.
Knowledge
When we comprehend our role on Earth, even the most modest and inconspicuous, then only we will be happy. Only then will we be able to live and die in peace, for what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death.
Of course, they use the conquered, but it is desirable to use it, preparing for a new victory, in order to use the newly conquered.
Fight and victory
Who has seen the cedar hiding from the wind? The wind shakes it and strengthens it. The one who will derive good from evil will manage.
Culture is not in things, but in invisible bonds that connect them to each other in this way and not otherwise.
Relationships
It is easy to find friends willing to help us. It's hard to earn friends who need our help.
Only by being an active participant in events can one play an effective role.
Fight and win, choice
Logic is not able to touch you to the quick, with its help you can’t climb a step higher.
Movement
You won't waste love. The more you give, the more you have left. When you draw from a living spring, it becomes more generous every day.
To love is not to look at each other, to love is to look together in the same direction.
I feel sad today, very sad, hopeless. Sad for my contemporaries, there is very little human left in them.
Modernity
We are fighting to win the war that is taking place just on the borders of our inner kingdom.
Fight and victory
We love everyone who gives us light...
The frightening absurdity of the present epoch lies with a monstrous burden on my heart.
Modernity
There is no need to fight slavery and rely on hatred, you need to fight for freedom and call on love for help.
Fight and victory
Don't skimp on your soul. Do not prepare supplies where the heart should work. To give is to bridge the abyss of one's loneliness.
generosity, kindness
You can't say "we" when you're on the sidelines.
Relationships
There is no love in reserve, which could be spent for oneself and spent, love is the work of the heart.
There are no circumstances that can immediately awaken the unknown in us, about which we had not suspected anything before. To live is to be gradually born.
rebirth
Never lose patience - this is the last key that opens the door.
Patience
The threads of love that now bind a person with other people and with things are too weak, too fragile ...
Modernity, relationships
Education and nobility are different things, not knowledge ennobles a person, the instrument that accumulates them is noble.
Nobility
The basis of any culture is, first of all, in the person himself. First of all, it is the blind, irresistible thirst for warmth inherent in man. And then, making mistakes again and again, a person finds his way to the fire.
When you give, you get more than you gave. Because you weren't there, and here you are.
recoil
True miracles are not noisy. And the most important events are very simple.
Miracles, the ability to recognize
Politics only makes sense when it helps to reveal the spiritual essence of a person.
Policy
To move forward means to know that the question that tormented you has lost its meaning.
Movement
Freedom exists only for someone who aspires somewhere. To set a man free in the wilderness is to arouse his thirst and show him the way to the well. Only then will his actions make sense.
Liberty
Freedom, coercion - what is this if not your simplification? You hesitate, choosing now freedom, now compulsion, but the truth is not in the other, and not in the other, and not in the middle, it is outside of them.
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon, France. French writer. The author of works - “Night Flight”, “Planet of People”, “The Little Prince”, “Letters of Youth”, “Wind, Sand and Stars”, etc. Crashed on a plane near Marseille on July 31, 1944.
Aphorisms, quotes, sayings, phrases - Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery
- The kingdom of man is within us.
- Each person has their own stars.
- You can't make old friends overnight.
- It is much harder to judge oneself than others.
- Words only make it difficult to understand each other.
- You will not find immortality inside yourself.
- You have to go through a lot to become a man.
- What gives meaning to life gives meaning to death.
- A person recognizes himself in the struggle with obstacles.
- The truth of a man is what makes him a man.
- War is not an adventure. War is a disease. Like typhoid.
- With the death of each person, the unknown world dies.
- When you let yourself be tamed, then it happens to cry.
- The Spirit alone, touching the clay, creates a Man out of it.
- Only one heart is vigilant. You can't see the most important thing with your eyes.
- At the appointed hour, life disintegrates like a pod, yielding seeds.
- When planting an oak, it is ridiculous to dream that you will soon find shelter in its shade.
- There are too many people in the world who have not been helped to wake up.
- To be human means to feel that you are responsible for everything.
- Working only for the sake of material goods, we are building a prison for ourselves.
- The greatest luxury in the world is the luxury of human communication.
- All our wealth is dust and ashes, they are powerless to deliver to us what is worth living for.
- Salvation lies in taking the first step. One more step. With him, everything starts anew.
- Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
- The earth helps us to understand ourselves, as no books can help us. For the earth resists us.
- To love is not to look at each other, to love is to look together in the same direction.
- When we comprehend our role on earth, even the most modest and inconspicuous, then only we will be happy.
- Truth is what simplifies the world, and not what creates chaos, it is a language that singles out the common from the diversity.
- All of us - some vaguely, some more clearly - feel: we need to awaken to life. But how many false paths open up.
- A vocation helps to free a person within himself, but it is also necessary for a person to be able to give free rein to his vocation.
- Painfully not the ugliness of this formless human clay. But in each of these people, perhaps, Mozart is killed.
- There is a hard and fast rule. You got up in the morning, washed your face, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order.
- I have always hated the role of observer. What am I if I don't take part? To be, I must participate.
- What is the use of political teachings that promise the flowering of man, if we do not know in advance what kind of person they will raise?
- He who dies for the sake of advancing our knowledge, or for the sake of being able to cure diseases, even dying serves life.
- Longing is when you long to see something, you don't know what. It exists, it is unknown and desirable, but it cannot be expressed in words.
- It may be beautiful to die in order to conquer new lands, but modern warfare destroys everything for which it is allegedly waged.
- It is good when something new, more perfect is born in a dispute between different civilizations, but it is monstrous when they devour each other.
- From the hour when the plane and mustard gas became weapons, the war became just a massacre. Victory goes to the one who rots last. And both opponents are rotting alive.
- In trying to embrace the world of today, we draw from the vocabulary of yesterday's world. And it seems to us that in the past life was more consonant with human nature - but this is only because it is more consonant with our language.
- In our world, all living things gravitate towards their own kind, even flowers, bowing in the wind, mix with other flowers, all swans are familiar to the swan - and only people become isolated in solitude.
- Those who lived for a long time with all-consuming love, and then lost it, sometimes get tired of their noble loneliness. And, humbly returning to life, finds happiness in the most ordinary affection.
- From the molten lava, from the dough from which the stars are molded, from the miraculously born living cell, we - people - came out and rose higher and higher, step by step, and now we write contacts and measure the constellations.
- When we comprehend our role on earth, even the most modest and inconspicuous, then only we will be happy. Only then will we be able to live and die in peace, for what gives meaning to life gives meaning to death.
- Working only for the sake of material goods, we build a prison for ourselves And lock ourselves in loneliness, and all our wealth is dust and ashes, they are powerless to deliver to us what is worth living for.
- Distance is not measured by distance. Sometimes more secrets are hidden behind the fence of a garden than behind the Chinese Wall, and silence protects the soul of a little girl more reliably than the endless sands of the Sahara protect a lonely oasis.
- Poor conception of culture among those who believe that it is reduced to hardened formulas. The last scholar in the department of exact sciences knows much more about the laws of nature than Descartes and Pascal knew. But is a schoolboy capable of thinking like them?
- The one who carries in his heart the image of the future cathedral is already a winner. Victory is the fruit of love. Only love opens the contours of a statue that has not yet been sculpted. Only love guides the chisel of its creator. Reason acquires value only when it serves love.
- War is not a real feat, war is a surrogate for feat. At the heart of a feat is the richness of the connections that it creates, the tasks that it sets, the accomplishments that it encourages. A simple game of heads or tails will not turn into a feat, even if the stake in it is life or death. War is not a feat. War is a disease. Like typhoid.
- Man is full of contradictions. A certain piece of bread is given to another, so that nothing prevents him from creating, and he falls into a dream. The conqueror, having won a victory, becomes cowardly; generous wealth turns into a miser. What is the use of political teachings that promise the flowering of man, if we do not know in advance what kind of person they will raise? Whom will their triumph give birth to? After all, we are not cattle to be fed, and when one poor Pascal appears, this is incomparably more important than the birth of a dozen prosperous nonentities.
