If Alice and The Little Prince would have met…

„Who are you?”
„I – I hardly know, Sir, just as present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several time since then”
„What do you mean by that?”
„I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, because I’m not myself, you see”
„I don’t see”
„I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly, for I can’t understand it myself, to begin with; and being so many sizes in a day is very confusing”
„It isn’t”
„Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so yet, but when you have to turn into a chrysalis – you will some day, you know – and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you’ll feel it a little queer, wont you?”
„Not a bit”
„Well, perhaps your feeling may be different; all I know is, it would feel very queer to me”
„You! Who are you?”

When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, „What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?” Instead, they demand: „How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?” Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.

Sursa foto

Two amazing books. The part when Alice meets the caterpillar is my all times favourite. And The Little Prince…it’s the chapter with the fox that I love the most, but Saint-Exupery’s book is simply wonderful and to be read once a year.

The Little Prince -Parts of chapter XXI

„I cannot play with you,” the fox said. „I am not tamed.”
[…]
„My life is very monotonous,” the fox said. „I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will 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 . . .”
„Please–tame me!” he said.
„I want to, very much,” the little prince replied. „But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand.”
„One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. ” […]
„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 . . .”
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 come 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 already 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 to be 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 is 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 are 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.”