27 Quotes By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry


The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on attitude

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on design

I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on freedom

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.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on god

The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on great

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on happiness

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on imagination

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.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on knowledge

Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on life

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on love

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on love

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.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on love

A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten,' he does not say 'My men were beaten.'
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

'Men have forgotten this truth,' said the fox. 'But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.'
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

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.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on men

The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on nature