Wednesday, December 01, 2004

What is essential is invisible to the eye

What is essential is invisible to the eye


This quote came from one of my favourite chapters from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The story goes that the little prince had thought that his rose was the only flower of her species in this entire universe. One day, he saw other roses on the planet Earth, and he felt upset that his rose was not the one and only rose in the universe. He also got worried that his rose on his planet would get upset if she were to find out that she was not the only one of her kind in the universe.
One day, the little prince met a fox, and then through the fox, the little prince discovered that his rose was afterall unique in all this universe.
And perhaps, when one feels that he is a nobody with nothing special, or when one feels he has nothing special that he could hold dear to, he could think of himself as the little prince's rose and ponder over what the little prince had said to the thousands of roses in the garden:


"You are not at all like my rose," "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
And somehow, my heart never fails to melt when I read this chapter. Touching, it is to me.
And before they part, the fox told the little prince this "secret": It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This has been one of my favorite quotes since I saw movie of "The Little Prince." It is one of the truest sentences ever uttered. It brings tears to my eyes, too.

oceanskies79 said...

It has brought good tears to my eyes too.

BENAGTANI said...

I just revisited The Little Prince after several years and I've been reminded of the tyranny of the non-essential things that we care about in this world. Oh, that we may all take time to tame a fox!

Unknown said...

lovely post......love this quote, and the deeper meaning how things are all quite ordinary till we begin to care for them, to love them, and treat them with respect. enjoy your writing. you are very good at it.

oceanskies79 said...

BENAGTANI: The time to tame a fox makes the fox so unique to us. :)

love2cookNbake: Thanks for your compliments.

alejandro.porta@hotmail.com said...

All of you forgive my poor English. I’ll try to do my best: Tame a fox, take care of your rose… Love what you have, learn how to appreciate good things in the Universe, and take care, both of the Universe and yourself at once, especially when you realise that you still have a rose, that you still have a fox to be tamed.