Antoine de Saint-Exupery — People

Painterly pile of stone rubble casting a cathedral-shaped shadow against warm terracotta. — Original artwork

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A short wooden trestle bridge ending in mid-air among pale clouds, with a small hammer on its far end. — Original artwork

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A glass-ribbon waterfall, wooden balancing figure on a wire, thick-trunked miniature baobab and smiling woodland elf form a small diorama. — Original artwork

Children, I say plainly, "watch out for the baobabs!"

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Painterly open worn suitcase containing a swirling dark storm cloud. — Original artwork

Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A small pair of cream children's shoes stands beside larger brown shoes on a warm wooden floor. — Original artwork

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Painterly pale stone and terracotta hands reaching towards each other across a small gap. — Original artwork

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.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A small blue sailing boat sits on folded green cloth waves with a brass anchor beside it. — Original artwork

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Painterly cracked rose-tinted glasses beside wilted clover on muted pink. — Original artwork

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.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A small boy with golden hair and a long yellow scarf sits on a desert dune beside a fox under a starry sky, a crashed plane behind them. — Original artwork

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Two small teacups side by side on a narrow blue plinth with a thin silver arc of light between them. — Original artwork

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A brass compass rests in moss beside a drifting copper-brown leaf against olive green. — Original artwork

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A toy sheep and cow stand beside a blank wooden arrow sign and a small brass whistle in a grassy landscape. — Original artwork

The proof that the little prince existed is that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Painterly small stone pyramid beside a narrow blue stream on golden sand beneath a hazy sun. — Original artwork

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A pair of brown gloves rests on a stool beside a closed wooden door with a glowing keyhole. — Original artwork

When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Two wooden chairs face an arched window overlooking a violet sunset, with a patterned throw on one chair. — Original artwork

You know - one loves the sunset, when one is so sad... "Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?" But the little prince made no reply.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery