The quote comes from a book that has had a tremendous influence on me. The book is titled The Little Prince
and there are so many quotes from the story that have shaped the way I take in the world. These photos were taken from my iPhone as I ran about around my neighborhood in Sacramento.
While I went about my day this story from the Little Prince played itself out in my head:
"Good morning" said the fox.
"Good morning" the little prince responded politely although when he turned around he saw nothing.
"I'm right here" the voice said, "under the apple tree."
"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You're very pretty to look at."
"I'm a fox", the fox said.
"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince.
"I can't play with you," the fox said, "I'm not tamed."
"Ah! Please excuse me,"said the little prince. But after some thought, he added: "What does that mean---'tame'?"
"It's an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties."
"To establish ties?"
"Just that," said the fox. "to me, you're still nothing more than a little boy who's 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'm 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'll be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world ..."
"I'm beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There's a flower. . .I think she has tamed me..."
"It is possible," said the fox. "On earth one sees all sorts of things."
"...if you tame me, it'll be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I'll know the sound of a step that'll be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."
The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time. "Please---tame me!" he said.
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I've not much time. I've friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there's no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me..."
"What must I do, to tame you? asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. First you'll 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'll sit a little closer to me, every day..."
The next day the little prince came back.
"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If for example, you came at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is ready to greet you... One must observe the proper rites..."
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near---
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
"It's your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you..."
"Yes that is so," said the fox.
"But now you're going to cry!" said the little prince.
"Yes that is so" said the fox.
"Then it has done you no good at all!"
"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added: "go and look again at the roses. You'll understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses. "You're not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You're like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made a friend, and now he's unique in all the world."
And he went back to meet the fox. "Goodbye" he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here's 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."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. "
"I am responsible..." the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
From The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
