Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have
made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essentail matters.
They never say to you, “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love
best? Does he collect butterflies?” Instead, they demand: “How old is he? How
many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father
make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about
him.
“I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced
gentleman. He had never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has
never loved any one. He has never done anything in his life but add up
figures.”
“Why are you drinking?” demanded the little prince.
“So that I may forget,” replied the tippler.
“Forget what?” inquired the little prince, who already felt
sorry for him.
“Forget that I am ashamed,” the tippler confessed, hanging
his head.
“Ashamed of what?” insisted the little prince, who wanted to
help him.
“Ashamed of drinking!”
“Nevertheless he is the only one of them all who does not
seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is thinking of something else
besides himself.”
“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is
just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And
you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox
like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need
each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be
unique in all the world…”
“You have hair like the color of gold. Think how wonderful
that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will
bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the
wheat…”
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is
essential is invisible to the eye.”
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince,
“is that somewhere it hides a well…”
"All men have the stars," he answered, "but
they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are
travellers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little
lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my
businessman they were wealth. But all the stars are silent. You--you
alone--will have the stars as no one else has them--"
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at
each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
You become responsible forever, for what you have tamed.
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.
You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.
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