“When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you get an idea before any one else, you take out a patent on it: it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them. “
” Yes, that is true. And what do you do with them?”
” I administer them. I count them and recount them. It is difficult. But I am a man who is naturally interested in matters of consequence. “
The little prince was still not satisfied.
” If I owned a silk scarf, I could put it around my neck and take it away with me. If I owned a flower, I could pluck that flower and take it away with me. But you cannot pluck the stars from heaven… “
” No. But I can put them in a bank. “
” Whatever does that mean? “
” That means that I write the number of my stars on a little paper. And then I put this paper in a drawer and lock it with a key. “
” And that is all? “
” That is enough. “said the businessman.
” It is entertaining, ” thought the little prince. “It is rather poetic. But it is of no great consequence. “
” I myself own a flower which I water every day. I own three volcanoes which I clean out every week ( for I also clean out the one that is extinct; one never knows). It is of some use to my volcanoes and it is of some use to my flower, that I own them. But you are of no use to the stars.. “
The businessman opened his mouth but he found nothing to say in answer. And the little prince went away.
” The grown-ups are certainly altogether extraordinary.”
Chapter XIII, The Little Prince,
Antoine de Saint- Exupéry
( professional air pilot who wrote this gem of a novel a year before his death in 1944)
He disappeared together with his plane somewhere over the Mediterranean while carrying out a military mission.
The Little Prince is sold each year (in thousands) in a 100 translations.
“I shall look as if I were dead and that will not be true… “
This is one book that I would keep with me till my last breath. I sometimes wonder if this guy knew that he would disappear. Otherwise why would he pen down such a gem a year before his disappearance?
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