The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

'Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.'                       

The narrator, tells us from the very start of how he never understood the grown-ups, about how they always wanted to talk about numbers and boring things. They never understood the thoughts of a child-they could never see the world in a different light to what they knew. So, then the narrator crashed his plane into the Sahara Desert. There he was awoken one day by a voice-the voice of a little man. This little man always smiled and laughed, and he told the man about his planet, and the grown-ups he had met. I love this book. The illustrations are so beautiful, and there are enough for you to imagine it all. This book also has so many quotes, it is my favourite 'quote' book (so I think I might include some). This book is equally for children and adults, I wish that I could speak French so that I could read the original, for I am sure it would sound so much more beautiful. It's so amazing and i've never read anything like it before, i'm not joking, everybody has to read this. 

Quotes: 

'The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd.'

'But he was in Turkish costume, so nobody would believe what he said. Grown-ups are like that...' 

'To those who understand life, that would have given a much greater air of truth to my story.For I do not want any one to read my book carelessly. I have suffered too much grief already setting down these memories. Six years have already passed since my friend went away from me, with his sheep. If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure that I shall not forget him. To forget a friend is sad. Not every one has a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown-ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures...'

'It is such a secret place, the land of tears.'

"It is also lonely among men", the snake said'

'Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world.'

'And now here is 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.' 

"You are 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 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."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, and ordinary passer-by 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 all 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 caterpillars (except the two or three that we have saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.'

'One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed...'

'Here, then, is a great mystery. For you who also love the little prince, and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has-yes or no?-eaten a rose...
Look up at the sky. Ask yourselves: Is it yes or no? Has the sheep eaten the flower? And you will see how everything changes...

And no grown-up will ever understand that this is a matter of so much importance!' 

And I love how he dedicated the book. On the fourth page, it says,

TO LEON WERTH

I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason; he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understand everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate this book to the child from whom this grown-up grow. All grown-ups were once children-although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication: 

TO LEON WERTH

WHEN HE WAS A LITTLE BOY