Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (June 29, 1900 - July 31, 1944) French writer , poet and aviator

See also: The Little Prince

Sourced:

• 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.
  • Terre des Hommes Translated into English as Wind, Sand, and Stars (1939)

• Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
  • Translation: Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.
  • Le Petit Prince (1943) Translated into English as The Little Prince

• Le langage est source de malentendus.
  • Translation: Language is the source of misunderstandings.
  • Le Petit Prince (1943) Translated into English as The Little Prince

• Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c'est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours leur donner des explications.
  • Translation: Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
  • Le Petit Prince (1943) Translated into English as The Little Prince

• Ce qui embellit le désert, dit le petit prince, c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part...
  • Translation: What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.
  • Le Petit Prince (1943) Translated into English as The Little Prince

• "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
  • Le Petit Prince (1943) Translated into English as The Little Prince

• A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
  • Pilote de Guerre (1942) Translated into English as Flight to Arras

• As for the future, your task is not to forsee it, but to enable it.
  • Citadelle (1948) Translated into English as The Wisdom of the Sands

Attributed:

• If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

• "La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever."
  • Translation: Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

• Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

• Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit.

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

• There is no hope of joy except in human relations.

• True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have.