Of all the childhood stories I have read, none has moved me as much as this…This candidly delusional tale of a grownup is sort of a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet…
Set in a surreal atmosphere, this story is so simplistic in its nature yet so profound in its impact that after finishing the story the reader is left with a sadly happy ending yearning for more wisdom from the Little Prince, who in his innocence, speaks such words that leaves one in a pensive mood…
Its a very small book, no more maybe than 40 or 50 odd pages…
I came across a site a couple of years ago which had the complete book uploaded, I had added it to my favourites, but the site was closed due to some copyright infringement, but happily today I came across another site which has the whole book on it…
Here are a few quotes from The Little prince:
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– To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.
– Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
– It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.
– What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.
– When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.
– 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.
– 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.
– If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: ‘Somewhere, my flower is there…’
– Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to always and forever explaining things to them.
– But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
– No one is satisfied where he is.
**
Antoine Saint de Exupery was the writer, and in my view, not the best of philosophers and thinkers have written in so few words as he did, the nuance of life…
I prefer the No Frames version because Exupery’s illustrations are more vivid there…