it has done me good...  

Posted in

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..."
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes, that is so," said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:
"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. 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."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an
ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you-- the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
And he went back to meet the fox.
"Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "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."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to
remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to
remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.


Le Petit Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (June 29, 1900 – July 31, 1944)

This entry was posted at 24.6.06 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

11 comentarios

my favorite book.

11:41 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
12:12 PM

Mine too... one of very few in which the writing is so simple that it can be read to a child, yet if one wishes, there is a myriad of profound thoughts to be discovered in the abounding metaphors.

I still haven't tired of reading it.

and on that note... I belive part of my problems lie in having too many stars. But if they all laugh... how can I but embrace them?

9:42 PM

12:28 PM

thanks for explaining. I hope I can be one who understands .

8:18 AM
Anonymous  

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

I love that part - so true. *sigh*

5:38 AM

that it is Jamie.

Love must be the light that allows the heart to see... makes me wonder just how blind I really am sometimes.

:)

6:33 AM
Anonymous  

I think Niki was right - sometimes people get so deep, you can drown. :)

11:16 AM

anon:

You gonna sit there and watch me drown?

:)

11:26 AM

and then I went under.

1:34 PM

snicker

3:27 PM

hey! watch that snickering. Unless of course you know CPR. Now there is something to smile about.

:)

10:37 PM

Post a Comment