'All grown-ups were once children': the 15 top Le Petit Prince quotes

Our favourite lines from the eternal question mark that is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, one of France’s most famous and well-loved books

The Little Prince (or in French Le Petit Prince) is in many ways not one but two books. As with a gobstopper, the first layer depicts a dreamlike children’s story. A second and closer look uncovers the various philosophical and open-ended charades concocted by its author, the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The English translation is by Katherine Woods.

The narrative of the book is inextricable from its creator, who also devised the watercolour illustrations that are key to the story’s popularity. Because of world politics, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry became exiled in the 1940s, and his wealth enabled him to roam the world, inspiring much of his wartime writing.

The Little Prince explores the boundless themes of love, loneliness and purpose through captivating and loveable characters who mirror Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s own position of outcast. The protagonist of the book is a pilot who crashes in the Sahara and finds both meaning and friendship through the eerie little prince and those he loves. Here are our favourite quotations:

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

But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.

One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed.

Grown-ups love figures… When you tell them you’ve made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies? “ Instead they demand ‘How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?’ Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

“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.”

“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.”

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.

“‘What makes the desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well…’”

But the conceited man did not hear him. Conceited people never hear anything but praise.

It is only with the heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.

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

No one is ever satisfied where he is.

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.

For millions of years flowers have been producing thorns. For millions of years sheep have been eating them all the same. And it’s not serious, trying to understand why flowers go to such trouble to produce thorns that are good for nothing? It’s not important, the war between the sheep and the flowers?

Sometimes, there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.

What have we missed? Please share your favourite Le Petit Prince quotations on Twitter @GdnChildrensBks or by email childrens.books@theguardian.com and we’ll add to this blog.

Clare, via email

‘And at night I love to listen to the stars, it’s like five hundred million little bells.’

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