I think I have read this book more than fifty times. And every time I read it, the story will always give me a different understanding and perspective. So for my first faculty meeting this Academic Year 2015-2016 I used the theme of The Little Prince to somehow inspire 127 teachers from Grades 1-7.
Here are some of my favorite lines, quotes,
and conversations in the story of
"Le Petit Prince" - The Little Prince.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
"All grown-ups were once children...
but only few of them remember it.”
"What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince,
'is that somewhere it hides a well...”
"People have forgotten this truth," the fox said.
"But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed.”
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose
that makes your rose so important.”
"I am looking for friends. What does that mean -- tame?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox.
"It means to establish ties."
"To establish ties?"
"Just that," said the fox.
"To me, you are still nothing more
than a little boy who is just like a hundred
thousand other little boys.
And I have no need of you.
And you, on your part, have no need of me.
To you I am nothing more than a fox
like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”
"You - you alone will have the stars
as no one else has them...
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 sky at night...
You - only you - will have stars that can laugh.”
"Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars
if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
"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...
They don't find it," I answered.
And yet what they're looking for could
be found in a single rose, or a little water..."
Of course," I answered.
And the little prince added, "But eyes are blind.
You have to look with the heart.”
"No one is ever satisfied where he is.”
"I have always loved the desert.
One sits down on a desert sand dune,
sees nothing, hears nothing.
Yet through the silence
something throbs, and gleams...”
"It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.”
"When someone blushes, doesn't that mean 'yes'?”
"Grown ups never understood anything by themselves. And it is rather tedious to have to explain things
to them time and again."
'What must I do, to tame you?' asked the little prince.
'You must be very patient,' replied the fox.
'First you will sit down at a little distance
from me-like that-in the grass.
I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye,
and you will say nothing.
Words are the source of misunderstandings.
But you will sit a little closer to me, every day...
If you come at four in the afternoon,
I'll begin to be happy by three."
“If you could fly to France in one minute,
you could go straight into the sunset, right from noon. Unfortunately, France is too far away for that.
But on your tiny planet, my little prince,
all you need do is move your chair a few steps.
You can see the day end and the twilight
falling whenever you like...
"One day," you said to me, "I saw the sunset
forty-four times!"
And a little later you added:
"You know -- one loves the sunset,
when one is so sad..."
"Were you so sad, then?" I asked,
"on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"
But the little prince made no reply.”
I mentioned earlier that I have probably read the book
more than fifty times. And every time I read it, the book
comes to life in many different ways in my mind.
When I was in high school, my understanding of
the story was more on the Little Prince's journey to
the different planets and meeting the
inhabitants of that planet.
Just like high school life - discovering friends,
learning new ideas, even realizing who
you really are as a person.
When I was in college, the Little Prince helped me
understood the meaning of loving and letting go.
(Wag na magtanong kung ano ito! Alam na!)
When I started to work, the story guided me
as I find my purpose in life as a new teacher -
full of ideas, dynamism and imagination.
And when I have lost a big deal in my life -
my daddy & mommy, my home, my roots in Malolos,
the story gave me a new perspective about
believing, hoping, forgiveness and charity.
The path I am traversing now is hard and rocky.
But I am comforted with the fact that
one day I will be able to embrace life's adversities.
Now you know why I love sunsets...
At 'yan ang sabi ni Manang!