Antoine De SaintExupery Quotes

A collection of quotes by Antoine De SaintExupery.

Antoine de Saint-ExupÃ©ry was a French writer and aviator born on June 29, 1900, in Lyon, France. He is best known for his novella "The Little Prince," which has become one of the most translated and best-selling books in the world.

Growing up in an aristocratic family, Saint-ExupÃ©ry developed a fascination with aviation from an early age. He began his aviation career as a pioneering airmail pilot, flying dangerous routes across the African deserts and South America. These experiences later provided inspiration for his writings.

During World War II, Saint-ExupÃ©ry joined the French Air Force as a reconnaissance pilot. He went on numerous daring missions, but in 1944, his plane mysteriously disappeared during a mission over the Mediterranean Sea. His death remains a mystery to this day.

Throughout his life, Saint-ExupÃ©ry's passion for aviation and writing were intertwined. His works often explored themes of adventure, the human spirit, and the importance of finding one's true purpose in life. Besides "The Little Prince," his notable works include "Night Flight" and "Wind, Sand and Stars," which was awarded the Grand Prix du roman de l'AcadÃ©mie franÃ§aise in 1939.

Antoine de Saint-ExupÃ©ry's legacy lives on through his timeless writings that continue to captivate readers of all ages, as well as through his contributions to the early days of aviation.

Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in th

Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

Antoine De SaintExupery

I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.

I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.

Antoine De SaintExupery

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect

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 SaintExupery

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of li

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

Antoine De SaintExupery

How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet

How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.

Antoine De SaintExupery

Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the

Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction.

Antoine De SaintExupery

What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man

What do we mean by setting a man free? You cannot free a man who dwells in a desert and is an unfeeling brute. There is no liberty except the liberty of some one making his way towards something. Such a man can be set free if you will teach him the meaning of thirst, and how to trace a path to a well. Only then will he embark upon a course of action that will not be without significance. You could not liberate a stone if there were no law of gravity -- for where will the stone go, once it is quarried?

Antoine De SaintExupery

The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth

The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.

Antoine De SaintExupery

Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?

Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?

Antoine De SaintExupery

To be a man is to be responsible. It is to feel shame at the

To be a man is to be responsible. It is to feel shame at the sight of what seems to be unmerited misery. It is to take pride in a victory won by one's comrades. It is to feel, when setting one's stone, that one is contributing to the building of the world.

Antoine De SaintExupery

A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplat

A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.

Antoine De SaintExupery

Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, wh

Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.

Antoine De SaintExupery

When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.

When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.

Antoine De SaintExupery

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victor

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

Antoine De SaintExupery

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing,

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become -- to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.

Antoine De SaintExupery

Commonly, people believe that defeat is characterized by a g

Commonly, people believe that defeat is characterized by a general bustle and a feverish rush. Bustle and rush are the signs of victory, not of defeat. Victory is a thing of action. It is a house in the act of being built. Every participant in victory sweats and puffs, carrying the stones for the building of the house. But defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom. And above all of futility.

Antoine De SaintExupery

Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know

Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know the joy of attaining it.

Antoine De SaintExupery

On a day of burial there is no perspective -- for space itse

On a day of burial there is no perspective -- for space itself is annihilated. Your dead friend is still a fragmentary being. The day you bury him is a day of chores and crowds, of hands false or true to be shaken, of the immediate cares of mourning. The dead friend will not really die until tomorrow, when silence is round you again. Then he will show himself complete, as he was -- to tear himself away, as he was, from the substantial you. Only then will you cry out because of him who is leaving and whom you cannot detain.

Antoine De SaintExupery

There is a cheap literature that speaks to us of the need of

There is a cheap literature that speaks to us of the need of escape. It is true that when we travel we are in search of distance. But distance is not to be found. It melts away. And escape has never led anywhere. The moment a man finds that he must play the races, go the Arctic, or make war in order to feel himself alive, that man has begin to spin the strands that bind him to other men and to the world. But what wretched strands! A civilization that is really strong fills man to the brim, though he never stir. What are we worth when motionless, is the question.

Antoine De SaintExupery

Escape Escapism

Are wars... anything but the means whereby a nation's proble

Are wars... anything but the means whereby a nation's problems are set, where creation is stimulated -- there you have adventure. But there is no adventure in heads-or-tails, in betting that the toss will come out of life or death. War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.

Antoine De SaintExupery