12 Lessons from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
'The Little Prince' encourages you to embrace love and teaches you what is really important in life.
In episode 005, we’re looking at The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a French pioneering aviator, author, and poet. He saw flying as a way to discover the world and human solidarity. Saint-Exupéry died in 1944 when his plane was shot down in Marseille.
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12 lessons from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
The greatest treasures in life are invisible to the eyes. “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”
Cultivating friendship requires exchanging the most important asset, time. “People haven’t time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in stores. But since there are no stores where you can buy friends, people no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!”
Most men want to rule over others. But the great and wise man rules over himself. “Then you shall pass judgment on yourself. That is the hardest thing of all. It is much harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it’s because you are truly a wise man.”
Don’t get lost in this game of wanting more. Learn to know when enough is enough. “And what good does it do you to be rich?”
“It lets me buy other stars, if somebody discovers them.”Tomorrow never comes. Take hold of this moment. Give all your energy to loving your family and friends. “Year by year the planet is turning faster and faster, and orders haven’t changed! Which means that now that the planet revolves once a minute, I don’t have an instant’s rest. I light my lamp and turn it out once every minute!”
You must take care of your mind daily. Fill it with good, and remove the bad. “It’s a question of discipline. When you’ve finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. You must be sure you pull up the baobabs regularly, as soon as you can tell them apart from the rosebushes, which they closely resemble when they’re very young. It’s tedious work, but very easy.”
Be responsible for your beliefs and actions. Don’t hide in your high tower. “There’s not one explorer on my planet. A geographer doesn’t go out to describe cities, rivers, mountains, seas, oceans, and deserts. A geographer is too important to go wandering about.”
You exchanged your immortality to experience this life. But it is in love, in the act of dying to yourselves, giving your being away with every act of love, that you are resurrected to immortality. “But if you tame me, we’ll need each other. You’ll be the only boy in the world for me. I’ll be the only fox in the world for you.”
Rituals are crucial to the mind-body. “My hunters for example have a rite. They dance with the village girls on Thursdays. So Thursday’s a wonderful day: I can take a stroll all the way to the vineyards. If the hunters danced whenever they chose, the days would all be just alike, and I’d have no holiday at all.”
Don’t abandon love. “You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.”
Death is indiscriminate. He will decide to take you on his terms. Face him this hour. “I’m telling you this… on account of the snake. He mustn’t bite you. Snakes are nasty sometimes. They bite just for fun.”
Your small, inconsequential vices will not remain small and inconsequential for long. “The good plants come from good seeds, and the bad plants from bad seeds. But the seeds are invisible. They sleep in secrecy of the ground until one of them decides to wake up.”
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