The Little Prince Quotations

Le Petit Prince is a novel by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, translated into English as The Little Prince.

Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c'est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours et toujours leur donner des explications.
- Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
  - Chapter I

Quand on veut un mouton, c'est la preuve qu'on existe.
- If somebody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists.
  - Chapter IV

Quand on a terminé sa toilette du matin, il faut faire soigneusement la toilette de la planète.
- When you've finished getting yourself ready in the morning, you must go get the planet ready.
  - Chapter V

J'aime bien les couchers de soleil. Allons voir un coucher de soleil...
- I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset...
  - Chapter VI

J'aurais dû ne pas l'écouter, me confia-t-il un jour, il ne faut jamais écouter les fleurs. Il faut les regarder et les respirer.
- "I should never have listened to her," he confided to me one day, "One should never listen to the flowers. One should simply look at them and breathe their fragrance."
  - Chapter VIII

"One must command from each what each can perform, the king went on. "Authority is based first of all upon reason. If you command your subjects to jump into the ocean, there will be a revolution. I am entitled to command obedience because my orders are reasonable."
" Then my sunset?" insisted the little prince, who never let go of a question once he had asked it.
"You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But I shall wait, according to my science of government, until conditions are favorable."
- Chapter X

C'est véritablement utile puisque c'est joli.
- It is truly useful since it is beautiful.
  - Chapter XIV

"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.
- Chapter XVII

Le langage est source de malentendus.
- Language is the source of misunderstandings.
  - Chapter XXI

Vous êtes belles, mais vous êtes vides.... On ne peut pas mourir pour vous.
- You're beautiful, but you're empty.... No one could die for you.
- Variant: You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you.
  - Chapter XXI

Les hommes ont oublié cette vérité, dit le renard. Mais tu ne dois pas l’oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé.
- "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
  - Chapter XXI

Les enfants seuls savent ce qu'ils cherchent.
- Only children know what they are looking for.
  - Chapter XXII

Ce qui embellit le désert, dit le petit prince, c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part...
- "What makes the desert beautiful," says the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well."
  - Chapter XXIV

Mais les yeux sont aveugles. Il faut chercher avec le cœur.
- But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart...
  - Chapter XXV

"Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"
But the little prince made no reply.