25 Quotes from The Little Prince

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The Little Prince is a novella written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. You might know it by its French title: Le Petit Prince, or the movie adaptation. The children’s story was originally published in 1943, and although the story itself may be old, the lessons told therein are still invaluable even today.

The Little Prince covers the story of a young prince as he travels from planet to planet, learning, quite simply, the meaning of life itself. Although this may seem like a daunting goal, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry accomplishes this goal beautifully. If you haven’t read the book, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is an incredible piece of fiction.

Due to the beautiful nature of the book, there are many amazing The Little Prince quotes. And today I’d like to show you some of the best. Sit back, relax, and prepare to be dazzled.

1. “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.”
2. “I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved anyone. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all day he says over and over, just like you: ‘I am busy with matters of consequence!’ And that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man—he is a mushroom!”
3. “It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”
4. “I myself own a flower, which I water every day. I own three volcanoes, which I clean out every week (for I also clean out the one that is extinct; one never knows). It is of some use to my volcanoes, and it is of some use to my flower, that I own them. But you are of no use to the stars . . .”
5. “That man would be scorned by all the others. 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.”
6. “Yes. The house, the stars, the desert—what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!”
7. “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”
8. “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
9. “But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.”
10. “But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.”
11. “All men have stars, but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems . . . But all these stars are silent. You—you alone will have stars as no one else has them.”
12. “’Where are the people?’ resumed the little prince at last. ‘It’s a little lonely in the desert…’ ‘It is lonely when you’re among people, too,’ said the snake.”
13. “All grown-ups were once children . . . but only few of them remember it.”
14. “No one is ever satisfied where he is.”
15. “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
16. “Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
17. “Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things already made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore.”
18. “If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers.”
19. “‘If a sheep eats bushes does it eat flowers too?’ ‘A sheep eats whatever it finds.’ ‘Even a flower with thorns?’ ‘Even a flower with thorns.’ ‘Then what’s the good of thorns?’”
20. “And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me.”
21. “The thing that is important usually is the thing that is not seen.”
22. “My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boa constrictor so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained.”
23. “Nature is harsh. It doesn’t give crowns to those who create the best but to the ones who can destroy the most. Beavers can build dams as much as they want, but bears will always rule the forest.”
24. “What matters most are the simple pleasures so abundant that we can all enjoy them… Happiness doesn’t lie in the objects we gather around us. To find it, all we need to do is open our eyes.”
25. “You’re beautiful, but you’re empty . . . One couldn’t die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she’s the one I’ve watered.”

I hope you enjoyed these quotes from The Little Prince. If you enjoyed these quotes, I strongly suggest you check out the actual book. You can get it here. Note that while The Little Prince is no longer copyrighted in most countries, it is still under copyright in France and in the US. It will remain copyrighted in the US until 2041.

What is your favorite The Little Prince quote? Do you enjoy the story as much as I do? Let me know in the comments below!