quotes by Aviator Quotes

“Vain is the hope of finding pleasure in that which one has hitherto disdained; as when the warrior hopes to find pleasure in the joys of the sedentaries.”

“Si quelqu'un veut un mouton, c'est la preuve qu'il en existe un. (If somebody wants a sheep, that is a proof that one exists.)”

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

“Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed.”

“And they heard the roaring thunder of a third brilliantly lighted express. "Are they pursuing the first travelers?" demanded the little prince. "They are pursuing nothing at all," said the switchman. "They are asleep in there, or if they are not asleep they are yawning. Only the children are flattening their noses against the windowpanes." "Only the children know what they are looking for," said the little prince. "They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry..." "They are lucky," the switchman said.”

“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.”

“We don’t ask to be eternal beings. We only ask that things do not lose all their meaning.”

“An administration, like a machine, does not create. It carries on.”

“I am a fox", the fox said.”

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

“We do not pray for immortality, but only not to see our acts and all things stripped suddenly of all their meaning; for then it is the utter emptiness of everything reveals itself.”

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

“I have always learned to distinguish the important from the urgent.”

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

“Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings.”

“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?”

“What does tamed mean? It's something that's been too often neglected. It means to create ties.”

“Attitude is a paintbrush. It colors everything!”

“So the crew fly on with no thought that they are in motion. Like night over the sea, they are very far from the earth, from towns, from trees. The clock ticks on. The dials, the radio lamps, the various hands and needles go though their invisible alchemy. . . . and when the hour is at hand the pilot may glue his forehead to the window with perfect assurance. Out of oblivion the gold has been smelted: there it gleams in the lights of the airport.”

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

“My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored.”

“If France is to be judged, judge her not by the effects of her defeat but by her readiness to sacrifice herself.”

“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.”

“On ne sait jamais! One never knows!”

“The dignity of the individual demands that he be not reduced to vassalage by the largesse of others.”

“To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has had a friend.”

“True love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have.”

“Nobody grasped you by the shoulder while there was still time. Now the clay of which you were shaped has dried and hardened, and naught in you will ever awaken the sleeping musician, the poet, the asronomer that possibly inhabited you in the beginning.”

“He fell as gently as a tree falls. There was not even any sound.”

“As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.”

“Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than iteself.”

“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.”

“The one thing that matters is the effort. It continues, whereas the end to be attained is but an illusion of the climber, as he fares on and on from crest to crest; and once the goal is reached it has no meaning.”

“Demagoguery enters at the moment when, for want of a common denominator, the principle of equality degenerates into the principle of identity.”

“Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”

“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 any one. 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!”

“Defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom, and above all futility.”

“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.”

“We are all youthful barbarians, and only our new toys bring us excitement. That has been the sole purpose of our flights. This one flies higher, that one faster. But now we will make ourselves at home. We will forget the machine, the tool. It is no longer complex; it does what it is supposed to do, unnoticed. And through this tool we will find again the old nature, the nature of the gardener, the navigator, the poet.”

“When you want to build a ship, then do not drum the men together in order to procure wood, to give instructions or to distribute the work, but teach them longing for the wide endless sea.”

“Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between the generations.”

“It is in your act that you exist, not in your body. Your act is yourself, and there is no other you.”

“Prison is not a mere physical horror. It is using a pickaxe to no purpose that makes a prison.”

“When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wander a little from the truth.”

“So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near-- Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry." It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ." Yes, that is so," said the fox. But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince. Yes, that is so," said the fox. Then it has done you no good at all!" It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields.”

“Although human life is priceless, we always act as if something had an even greater price than life... but what is that something?”

“A man's age is something impressive, it sums up his life: maturity reached slowly and against many obstacles, illnesses cured, griefs and despairs overcome, and unconscious risks taken; maturity formed through so many desires, hopes, regrets, forgotten things, loves. A man's age represents a fine cargo of experience and memories.”

“But if you tame me, my life will be filled with sunshine. I'll know the sound of footsteps that will be different from all the rest. Others send me back underground. Yours will call me out of my burrow like music.”

“Nothing can match the treasure of common memories.”

“Only the children know what they are looking for.”