"When I was 6 years old, I made my first drawing." "It was a boa constrictor digesting an Elephant." "I showed it to the grown-ups and asked them if the drawing frightened them and they said" "Why would any one be frightened of a hat?" "Then I made second drawing." "Drawing the boa constrictor from the inside." "So that the grown-ups could easily see it." "They always needed to have things explained to them." "After seeing my two drawings," "They suggested that I busy myself with matters of consequence." "That ended my drawing career." "And so I became a pilot and lived my life alone." "Without anyone I could really talk to." "Until my plane had an engine trouble in the desert a thousand miles from any human habitation." "Imagine my surprise when I heard..." "If you please..." "Draw me a sheep!" "I jumped to my feet, thunderstruck." "But..." "What are you doing here?" "If you please..." "Draw me a sheep!" "I told the chap, a little crossly, too..." "That I did not know how to draw." "Oh, that doesn't matter." "Draw me a sheep." "So I drew one of the two pictures" "I had drawn so often." "No!" "no!" "I do not want an elephant inside a boa constrictor." "Draw me a sheep." "No, this sheep is sickly." "Make me another." "So I made another drawing." "You see yourself, this is a ram." "It has horns." "By this time my patience was exhausted." "So I tossed off this drawing." "This is only his box." "The sheep you asked for is inside." "That is exactly the way I wanted it!" "Do you think that this sheep will have to have a great deal of grass?" "Where I live everything is very small." "Look!" "He has gone to sleep." "And that is how I made the acquaintance of" "The Little Prince" "It took me a long time to learn where he came from." "It was from words dropped by chance that, little by little, everything was revealed to me." "It is true, isn't it, that sheep eat little bushes?" "Yes, that is true." "Then it follows that they also eat baobabs?" "There were some terrible seeds on the planet of the little prince." "And these were the seeds of the baobab." "It spreads over the entire planet." "It bores clear through with its roots." "And if the planet is too small and the baobabs are too many... they split it in pieces." "It is a question of discipline." "You must see to it that you pull up all the baobabs... at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the..." "At that moment I was very busy trying to unscrew a bolt that had got stuck in my engine." "A sheep..." "If it eats little bushes, does it eat flowers, too?" "A sheep eats anything it finds in its reach." "Even flowers that have thorns?" "Yes." "Then the thorns, what use are they?" "I was very much worried..." "And I had so little drinking-water left that I had to fear the worst." "The thorns, what use are they?" "The little prince never let go a question, once he asked it." "The thorns are of no use at all." "Flowers have thorns just for spite!" "Oh!" "I don't believe you!" "Flowers are weak creatures." "They reassure themselves as best they can." "They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons..." "Don't you see..." "That I am very busy with matters of consequence!" "Matters of consequence!" "You talk just like grown-ups!" "The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years." "For millions of years the sheep have been eating them just the same." "And is it not a matter of consequence to try to understand why the flowers go to so much trouble to grow thorns which are never of any use to them?" "And if I know." "I, myself." "One flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing" "Oh!" "You think that is not important!" "I took him in my arms." "And rocked him." "The flower that you love is not in danger." "I will draw you a muzzle for your sheep." "I will draw you a railing to put around your flower." "I did not know what to say to him." "I felt awkward and blundering." "It is such a secret place, the land of tears." "I soon learned to know this flower better." "On the little prince's planet the flowers had always been very simple." "But one day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up." "And the little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout." "It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab." "But the shrub soon stopped growing, and began to get ready to produce a flower." "She chose her colours with the greatest of care." "She adjusted her petals one by one." "And then one morning, exactly at sunrise... she showed herself." "Ah!" "I beg that you will excuse me." "My petals are still all disarranged..." "Oh!" "How beautiful you are!" "And I was born at the same moment as the sun." "One day, when she was speaking of her thorns, she said to the little prince:" "Let the tigers come with their claws!" "There are no tigers on my planet." "I am not at all afraid of tigers, but I have a horror of drafts." "I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?" "This flower is a very complex creature..." "At night I want you to put me under a glass globe." "It is very cold where you live." "In the place I come from my... she was embarassed over having let herself be caught on the verge of untruth." "She could not have known anything of any other worlds." "She had come in the form of a seed." "The screen?" "The little prince came to doubt her." "That made him very unhappy." "He decided to leave her" "I was too young to know how to love her..." "She perfumed all my planet." "But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace." "I ought to leave judge by her deeds... not by her words." "On the morning of his departure, he put his planet in perfect order." "He believed that he would never want to return." "Let the glass globe be." "I don't want it any more." "After all!" " I am a flower." " But the animals..." "I have my thorns." "Don't linger like this." "You've decided to go away." "Now go!" "She did not want him to see her crying." "She was such a proud flower." "And so, he left..." "Taking advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds." "He found himself near a planet inhabited by a king." "Pardon me, Sire..." "May I pay you a visit?" "I order you to do so." "May I ask you a question?" "I order you to ask me a question." "Over what do you rule?" "Over everything!" "I do not permit insubordination" "I should like to see a sunset..." "Do me that kindness..." "Order the sun to set..." "I should command it to" "That's about to..." "About to..." "Twenty minutes to eight this evening" "And you will see how well I am obeyed." "I see." "I'm afraid I can not wait." "Do not go!" "If Your Majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed..." "He should order me to be gone by the end of one minute." "I made you my ambassador!" "He had a magnificent air of authority." "The grown-ups are very strange." "The second planet was inhabited by a conceited man." "Do you really admire me?" "Admire?" "You?" "Yes." "Am I not the handsomest, best-dressed, richest and most intelligent man on this planet." "you are." "The only man on your planet!" "Do me this kindness." "Admire me just the same." "The grown-ups are certainly very odd." "The third planet belonged to a businessman." "Good morning." "3 and 2 make 5. 5 and 7 make 12." "12 and 3 make 15." "Good morning." "15 and 7 make 22. 22 and 6 make 28." "28 away 5 make 23." "That makes five-hundred-one-million, six-hundred-twenty-two-thousand, seven-hundred-thirty-three." "Five hundred million what?" "Stars." "What do you do with five-hundred million stars?" "Nothing, nothing, I own them." "How is it possible for one to own the stars?" "I was the first person to think of it." "Is that all that is necessary?" "Certainly." "When you discover an island belongs to nobody, it's yours." "When you get an idea before anybody else, you take out a patent on it." "It's yours." "So I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them." "I myself own a flower which I water every day." "Oh,boy." "I own three volcanoes, which I clean out every week." "Yeah, I bet." "It is of some use to my volcanoes and to my flower, that I own them." "But you are of no use to the stars..." "And he went on his way." "The grown-ups are certainly altogether extraordinary." "The fourth planet was a smallest of all." "There was just enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter." "Good morning." "What are you doing?" "Following orders." "Good morning." "Oh, I follow a terrible profession." "In the old days it was reasonable." "I put the lamp out in the morning." "Good evening!" "And in the evening I lighted it again." "And the orders have been changed since that time?" "Good morning." "The orders have not been changed." "That is the tragedy!" "From year to year the planet has turned more rapidly... and the orders have not been changed!" "The planet now makes a complete turn every minute." "Good morning." "Once every minute I have to light my lamp and put it out!" "That is very funny!" "A day lasts only one minute, here where you live!" "It is not funny at all!" "While we have been talking together a whole month has gone by." "Good evening." "Even so, the little prince was sorry to leave this planet... because it was blessed every day with 1440 sunsets!" "The fifth planet was ten times larger than the last... and inhabited by an old geographer." "who wrote voluminous books." "Ah!" "You come from far away!" "You are an explorer!" "We geographers are too busy writing books to explore..." "You shall describe your planet to me!" "Oh, where I live is not very interesting." "It is also small." "I have three volcanoes." "Two active." "And the other is extinct." "But one never knows." "Ah!" "One never knows." "I have also a flower." "We geographers do not record flowers." "Why is that?" "My flower is the most beautiful thing on my planet!" "We do not record them, because they are ephemeral." "What does that mean..." "Ephemeral?" "It means" " That which is in danger of speedy disappearance." "We write of eternal things." "Is my flower in danger of speedy disappearance?" "Certainly it is." "My flower is ephemeral..." "And she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world." "And I have left her on my planet, all alone!" "That was his first moment of regret." "And the little prince went away..." "Thinking of his flower." "So then the last planet was the Earth." "The Earth is not just an ordinary planet!" "One can count there 111 kings... 7000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen... 311,000,000 conceited men... that is to say, about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups." "They imagine that they fill a great deal of space." "In truth, however, if they would all to stand upright" "And somewhat crowded together." "They could easily be put into one public square." "Twenty miles long and twenty miles wide." "In the desert..." "When the little prince came to Earth..." "There was't a single grow-up to be seen." "He was beginning to be afraid he come to the wrong planet." "Oh!" "Good evening." "Good evening." "Look at my planet." "It is right there above us." "But how far away it is!" "It is beautiful, What has brought you here?" "I have been having some trouble with a flower." "Ah!" "You are a funny animal..." "You're no thicker than a finger..." "But I am more powerful than the finger of a king." "But you haven't any feet." "You can not travel." "I can carry you farther than any ship could take you." "I can help you, some day..." "If you grow too homesick for your own planet." "I can..." "Oh!" "I understand you very well." "But why do you always speak in riddles?" "I solve them all." "And then the little prince walked for a long time" "Through sand and rocks, and snow." "At last, he came to a garden..." "All a-bloom with roses." "Good morning." "Who are you?" "We are roses!" "I thought that I was rich" "With a flower that was unique in all the world." "And all I had was a common rose." "And three volcanoes that come up to my knees." "And one of them perhaps extinct forever." "That doesn't make me a very great prince." "And he lay down in the grass and cried." "It was then that the fox appeared." "Who are you?" "You are very pretty to look at." "I am a fox." "Come play with me." "I am so unhappy." "I cannot play with you, I am not tamed." "What does that mean..." "Tame?" "Tame means to establish ties." "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." "If you tame me, I shall... know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others." "And then look." "You see the wheat-fields yonder?" "Well they have nothing to say to me." "But you have hair that is the colour of gold." "When you tame me, the wheat, which is also golden," "Will bring back the thought of you." "And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat." "Oh, Please..." "Tame me!" "What must I do?" "You must be very patient." "First you will sit down at a distance from me." "Like that..." "In the grass." "I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye." "And you'll say nothing." "Words are the source of misunderstandings." "But, you will sit a little closer to me, every day..." "And so, the little prince tamed the fox." "And when his hour of departure drew near..." "Ah!" "I shall cry!" "But you wanted me to tame you," "And now, it has done you no good at all!" "It has done me good because of the color of the wheat fields." "Look again at the roses." "You will see that they are not at all like your rose." "You are like my fox when I first knew him." "He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes." "But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world." "No, You are not at all like my rose." "I will tell you a very simple secret." "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly" "What is essential is invisible to the eye." "What is essential is invisible to the eye." "It is the time you have spent on your rose," "That makes your rose so important." "It is the time I have spent on my rose..." "You have become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." "You are responsible for your rose..." "I am responsible for my rose." "It was now the eighth day since I had my accident in the desert." "And the water was nearly gone." "You must keep your promise." "You know, a muzzle for my sheep." "So then I made a pencil sketch of a muzzle." "And as I gave it to him my heart was torn." "And I was overcome with and unexplainable sense of grief." "You have plans that I do not know about." "I remember the fox." "One runs the risk of weeping a little if one lets himself be tamed." "When I came back from my work, the next evening" "I saw from some distance away... my little prince sitting on top of this wall with his feet dangling." "Yes, yes." "I shall be there tonight." "Are you sure that it will not make me suffer too long?" "I dropped my eyes, and there before me was one of those snakes they take just thirty seconds to bring your life to an end." "What does this mean?" "Why are you talking to snakes?" "He put his arms around my neck." "I felt his heart beating like the heart of a dying bird." "I've just been coming to tell him that, at last the work on my engine had been successful, but, somehow," "He already knew." "I, too, am going back home today." "It is much farther..." "It is much more difficult..." "I realised that something extraordinary was happening." "I have your sheep." "And I have the sheep's box." "And I have the muzzle..." "Tonight, it will be a year..." "My star, then, can be found right above the place where I came to Earth, a year ago..." "Little man, tell me that it's only a bad dream." "This affair of the snake, and the meeting-place, and the star..." "The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen." "Yes, I know." "It is just as it is with the flower" "If you love a flower that lives on a star..." "It is sweet to look at the sky at night." "All the stars are a-bloom with flowers..." "For you, my star will be just one of the stars." "And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens..." "And, besides, I am going to make you a present..." "Ah, little prince!" "I love to hear that laughter!" "That is my present." "I don't understand." "In one of the stars I shall be living." "In one of them I shall be laughing." "And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing... when you look at the sky at night." "only you'll have stars that can laugh!" "And your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky!" "And they will think you're crazy." "It will be a very shabby trick that" "I've played on you." "And when your sorrow is comforted... you will be content that you have known me." "You will always be my friend." "Tonight, you know..." "Do not come." "I shall not leave you." "I shall look as if I were suffering." "It is like that." "Do not come to see it." "I shall not leave you." "That night I did not see him set out on his way." "He left without making a sound." "At last, I caught up with him" "Ah!" "You are there..." "It was wrong of you to come." "You will suffer." "I shall look as if I were dead... and that will not be true..." "You understand..." "It is too far." "I cannot carry this body with me." "It is too heavy." "But it will be like an old abandoned shell." "There is nothing sad about old shells..." "Here it is." "Let me go on by myself." "You know, my flower..." "I am responsible for her." "And she is so weak!" "She has four thorns, of no use at all to protect herself against all the world." "He hesitated a little..." "And drew his breath." "He took one step." "I could not move." "There was not even any sound, because of the sand." "And now six years have already gone by..." "My sorrow is comforted a little." "I know that he did go back to his planet... because I did not find his body at daybreak." "And at night, I love to listen to the stars." "But there is one extraordinary thing." "When I drew the muzzle for the little prince..." "I forgot to add the leather strap to it." "He will never have been able to fasten it on his sheep." "So now I keep wondering..." "Perhaps the sheep has eaten the rose..." "And then I say" " Surely not!" "The little prince shuts his flower under her glass globe every night." "And he watches over his sheep very carefully..." "Then I am happy." "And there is a laughter of all the stars." "But at another time I say to myself..." "At some moment or other one is absent-minded..." "On some one evening he forgot the glass globe... or the sheep got out... without making any noise, in the night..." "And then the laughter is changed to tears..." "Here, then, is a great mystery." "For you who love the little prince... and for me... nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere..." "We do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has..." "Yes or no?" "Eaten a rose..." "Look up at the sky." "Ask yourselves." "Is it yes or no?" "Has the sheep eaten a rose?" "And you will see how everything changes" "And no grown-up will ever understand that..." "This is a matter of so much importance!"