Quotes by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible."

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

"For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow."

"We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men."

"A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them."

"For true love is inexhaustible the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow."

"Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are."

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

"Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself."

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

"The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them."

"You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose."

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

"'Men have forgotten this truth,' said the fox. 'But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.'"

"A civilization is a heritage of beliefs, customs, and knowledge slowly accumulated in the course of centuries, elements difficult at times to justify by logic, but justifying themselves as paths when they lead somewhere, since they open up for man his inner distance."

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."

"No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls."

"Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men."

"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."

"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."

"It is such a secret place, the land of tears."

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

"I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin."

"What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it."

"I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin."

"Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree."

"Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made."

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral."

"Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known."

"True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new."

"A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten,' he does not say 'My men were beaten.'"

"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."

"War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus."

"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them."

"One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up."

"The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something."