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

More from Terre des Hommes (1939) (Wind, Sand and Stars)

• A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
• As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.
• Children, I say plainly, "watch out for the baobabs!"
• Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings.
• Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
• I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering. I did not know how I could reach him, where I could overtake him and go on hand in hand with him once more. It is such a secret place, the land of tears.