《小王子》佳言摘鈔

［法國］ Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944): The Little Prince

Grown-ups always need explanations.
Grown-ups love figures.
They adore figures: it will make them happy.

All grown-ups were once children... but only a few of them remember it

I would place myself on their level.

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

When one is that sad, one can get to love the sunset.

One never knows!

Authority rests first of all upon reason.
- A king

It is far more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are truly a man of wisdom.
- A king

Kings do not ‘own’. Kings ‘reign over’. There is a large difference.
- A businessman

Since it is beautiful, it is truly useful.

"That man," said the little prince to himself, as he continued farther on his journey, "that man would be scorned by all the others: by the king, by the conceited man, by the tippler, by the businessman. 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."

‘It is lonely when you’re among people, too.’ said the snake.
蘇軾：唯有王城最堪隱，萬人如海一身藏

Be my friends, I am all alone.

I am looking for friends.

‘Precisely,’ said the fox. ‘To me, you are still only a small boy, just like a hundred thousand other small boys. And I have no need of you. And you in turn have no need of me. To you, I’m just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you shall be unique in the world. To you, I shall be unique in the world.’

People no longer have the time to understand anything. They buy everything ready-made from the shops. But there is no shop where friends can be bought, so people no longer have friends.
- The fox

Words are the source of misunderstandings.

‘What is a ritual?’ said the little prince.
‘Something else that is frequently neglected,’ said the fox. ‘It’s what makes one day different from the other days, one hour different from the other hours.’

He was just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I made him my friend, and now he is unique in the world.

You can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.
The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.

It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important.

You become responsible, for ever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.

Only the children know what they are looking for.

It is good to have a friend, even if you are about to die.

You run the risk of a few tears when you allow yourself to be tamed…

You will always be my friend.