It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. To be a man is to feel that one’s own stone contributes to building the edifice of the world. Let a man in a garret burn with enough intensity, and he will set fire to the world. Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are, and not another. You are free to be that man, but not free to be another. It is in your act that you exist, not in your body. Your act is yourself, and there is no other you. True love begins when nothing is looked for in return. Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry