Only he can understand what a farm is, what a country is, who shall have sacrificed part of himself to his farm or country, fought to save it, struggled to make it beautiful. Only then will the love of farm or country fill his heart.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Only the unknown frightens men. But once a man has faced the unknown, that terror becomes the known.
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
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.
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.
The one thing that matters is the effort.
Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know the joy of attaining it.
Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid. Only the unknown frightens men.
The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.
It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.
War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.
A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He says 'I was beaten', he does not say 'My men were beaten.'
And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.
Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.
To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.
Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
One can be a brother only in something. Where there is no tie that binds men, men are not united but merely lined up.
The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth.
What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.
He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.
The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.
True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.
The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.
Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become - to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.
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.
Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.
A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.
Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?
You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.
Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.
Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures-in this century as in others our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.
Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.
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.
