The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[Psychonaut]

The Little Prince (French: Le Petit Prince), published in 1943, is French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most famous novella, which he wrote in the United States while renting The Bevin House in Asharoken, New York, on Long Island. The novella includes a number of drawings by Saint-Exupéry himself, which are reproduced in most versions.

Though ostensibly a children's book, The Little Prince makes several profound and idealistic points about life and human nature. Saint-Exupéry tells of meeting a young prince in the middle of the Sahara. The essence of the book is contained in the famous lines uttered by the fox to the Little Prince: "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (One cannot see well except with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes). Other key thematic messages are articulated by the fox, such as: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed" and "It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important. "

Source

Here's a link to the original French version, and below is a PDF of the English translation.

[YggsVinr]

I used to love Le Petit Prince as a child, we used to read it in class a lot. I vaguely remember there being a show on TFO that I used to watch as well. Thanks, I'm definitely going to have reread this.

[Beorn]

For those who are not Francophone or Anglophone inclined and wish to read it; here is a link to 'The Little Prince' in Croatian.

[Loddfafner]

It is a rich source of metaphors. Much drivel about power by political theorists is answered by the king of one of those asteroids who can only order the sun to set at exactly the right time.