The document contains excerpts from The Little Prince that discuss various themes. It describes the Little Prince's encounters with different characters, including a businessman who counts stars but does not appreciate their beauty, and a lamplighter whose planet revolves so quickly he never rests. It also discusses how adults often focus on superficial details rather than what matters, and how love and imagination are more important than what can be seen on the surface.

1. MIHAI ANASTASIA AND
GÎLCEVESCU DARIA
ROMANIA

2.  ‘Grown-ups are very fond of numbers. When you tell
them about a new friend, they never ask you the kind
of questions that should be asked, such as: “What
kind of voice does he have?” “What are his favourite
games?” “Does he collect butterflies?” Instead they
ask: “How old is he? How many brothers does he
have?" "How much does he weigh?" "How much
money does his father make?" Only then do they
think they know him." They really do imagine this is
the best way to discover what sort of person he is!’

3.  ’’It’s a just a question of self-discipline,” the
little prince explained later. “First thing in the
morning you look after yourself, you brush
your teeth and wash your face, don’t you?
Well, the second thing you must do is to look
after the planet.”’

4. ’’[My rose] filled me with her fragrance,
she had brought joy to my life. I should
never leave her. I should have recognised
what a sensitive sweet soul there was
under all her rather silly games.’’

5.  Whether it’s your dreams or a loved one,
don’t let anyone diminish its importance. It
means something to you because you have
invested time and energy in it. YOU care,
even if no one else gets its significance.

6.  “What exactly does ‘tamed’ mean?”
 “Well, it’s something too often forgotten,” said the fox. “I
suppose it means: to make some kind of relationship.”
 “Relationship?”
 “Yes,” said the fox. “I’ll explain. To me, you are just a just a little
boy like any other, like a hundred thousand other little boys. I
have no need of you and you have no need of me. To you I am a
fox like any other, like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if
you tame me, you and I, we will have created a relationship, and
so we will need one another. You will be unique in the world for
me… If you were to tame me, my whole life would be so much
more fun. I would come to know the sound of your footstep, and
it would be different from all the others. At the sound of any
other footstep I would be down in my hole in the earth as quick
as you like. But your footstep would be like music to my ears,
and I would come running up out of my hole, quick as you like.”

7.  ‘Once the little prince fell asleep, I picked him up in
my arms and set off on my way again. I was so moved
as I walked. It seemed to me that I was carrying in my
arms the most delicate of treasures, that there could be
nothing more fragile on the whole Earth. In the light of
the moon I looked down at this pale forehead, those
closed eyes, those locks of his that trembled in the
wind: “What I am seeing,” I thought, “is no more than
the shell. What is truly important I cannot see.”

8. ‘’I lifted the bucket to his lips. He drank, his eyes
closed. Then I drank. It was like a feast of water.
This was not ordinary food of course, but it
might just as well have been. The sweetness of
this water was born from the long walk under
the stars, from the song of the pulley, and for the
effort of pulling up that bucket. It made me feel
good, made me happy, as a present does.’’

9.  “Stars mean different things to different people.
For travellers, stars tell them where they are, where
they are going. For others, they are just little lights
in the sky. For scholars, they are the world of the
unknown, yet to be discovered and understood. For
my businessman, they are gold. But all stars stay
silent. And you? No one else in the world will see
the stars as you do… For you, and only for you, the
stars will always be laughing.”

10.  The inextricable bond between you and the things
you “tame” is, essentially, love. What binds the
little prince and the fox is their friendship, and for
that they will never really be apart or estranged. To
be tamed, you need to break down your walls and
open yourself up, which is why the little prince
also said, “One runs the risk of crying a bit if one
allows oneself to be tamed.”

12.  This is both nostalgic and sad. We are made
up of memories and imagination and
curiosity, but sometimes forget how to be a
child again after being worn down by the
daily grind.

13.  On the first planet he visits, the little prince meets
a king who encompasses the entire population of
the planet, and claims to reign over everything.
Though the little prince can't fathom what it is he
actually does, the king teaches the hero that
judging yourself is far more difficult, and at times
far more important, than judging others. It is only
through judging ourselves that we can grow as
individuals.

14.  On the second planet, the little prince meets a
vain man who spends his time admiring
himself, and seeking the admiration of others.
But living for the admiration of others is to
never live for oneself. And living for only
oneself is to never love or care for another.

15.  The drunkard drinks to forget he is ashamed.
The drunkard is ashamed because he drinks.
To the little prince, it seems very strange for a
man to spend his days in such a manner when
he could be doing far more exciting things
(like planting flowers). But to us grown-ups,
its a reminder of a vicious cycle, and one that
only ever ends in more sadness and despair.

16.  The little prince meets a businessman who counts
all the stars in the galaxy so that he can own them.
"I manage them. I count them and then count them
again. It's difficult work. But I'm a serious person."
But being too serious has landed him a
monotonous life, a lonely life, and a life in which
he does not even appreciate the beauty of the stars
he owns.
 Another The Little Prince quote comes to mind:
"People where you live, the little prince said, grow
five thousand roses in one garden... Yet they don't
find what they're looking for... And yet what
they're looking for could be found in a single rose."

17.  It is the lamplighter of the 5th planet who
gains the little prince's respect, for he follows
his orders dutifully to switch the lamplight
on and off through the day. But because his
planet revolves once a minute, he never gets a
moment of rest. A month goes by in a minute.
And a lifetime in a few days.

18.  When the little prince meets a geographer
who refuses to explore his own world because
he is too busy researching far-off lands, we
learn that it is far too easy to fall into the trap
of investigating into the places we wish to
explore, but never actually going anywhere.

19.  Even amidst a garden of beautiful roses, the
little prince cannot escape thoughts of his
own rose — he just can't replace her. "One
couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary
passerby would think my rose looked just
like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more
important than all of you together, since she's
the one I've watered."

20.  Even though the narrator — a lonely and stranded
pilot — has come to know and love the little prince;
he knows that to keep him on Earth would be to
hurt his friend. Before the little prince leaves, he
tells the pilot, "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 night sky." Sometimes you have to let people
go, because to keep them would be to trap them.
But letting them go can be the truest demonstration
of love there is.

21.  When the narrator draws a boa constrictor
digesting an elephant, all the grown-ups
around him see is a hat. Their interpretations
are dull and lifeless; their imaginations long
gone. Feeling defeated, the narrator abandons
a "magnificent career as an artist" — all
because adults refused to see or feel.
 Remember what is perhaps the most famous
quote from The Little Prince: "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."

22.  Love is not the act of seeing the beauty of
another person. Love is sharing a common
goal, facing challenges together, and building
a life with someone you can rely on.

23.  "I know a planet where there is a certain red-
faced gentleman. He has never smelled a
flower. He has never looked at a star. He has
never loved any one. He has never done
anything in his life but add up figures. And
all day he says over and over, just like you: 'I
am busy with matters of consequence!' And
that makes him swell up with pride. But he is
not a man- he is a mushroom!"

24. Money doesn't buy
happiness.
The Little Prince cannot
understand how is it
possible for the Business
Man to possess stars, and
having something that
cannot be enjoyed by him.
There are things that cannot
be owned because they
belong to the world.
 All actions have
consequences.
 Our decisions transform not
only our reality, they have
an impact in the world.
Whatever we do can come
back to haunt us.
" (...) 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 the
flower? And you will see
how everything changes..."