Goal #19: Valuable lessons from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Part II)

On the viscous cycles in life and dying among the living
“I’m drinking,” said the drinker, with a mournful air.
“Why are you drinking?” said the little prince.
“To forget,” replied the drinker.
“To forget what?” enquired the little prince, who was already starting to feel sorry for him.
“To forget that I’m ashamed,” confessed the drinker, hanging his head.
“Ashamed of what?” persisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.
“Ashamed of drinking!” concluded the drinker, retreating into permanent silence.
And the little prince went away, perplexed.

On life's purpose and storing riches
“And of what use is it to you to own the stars?”
“Its use is to make me rich.”
“And of what use is it to you to be rich?”
“To buy more stars, if there are any more to be discovered.”
…
“If I own a scarf,” [the little prince] said, “I can put it around my neck and take it with me. If I own a flower, I can gather my flower and take it with me. But you cannot gather the stars!”
“No, but I can deposit them in the bank.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I write down the number of stars I own on a piece of paper. Then I lock this paper up in a drawer.”
“And is that all?”
“That is enough!”
“It is amusing,” thought the little prince. “It is even rather poetic. But it’s not terribly serious.”
…
“I myself own a flower,” he persisted, “which I water everyday. I own three volcanoes, which I sweep out every week. It is of use to my volcanoes, and it is of use to my flower, that I own them. But you are of no use to the stars.”
The businessman opened his mouth, but found nothing to say in answer, and the little prince went away.
“Grown-ups are decidedly altogether extraordinary,” he merely said to himself, as he continued on his voyage.

On selflessness and the perplexity of selfishness
‘This fellow,’ said the little prince to himself, as he continued on his travels, “would be laughed at by all others: by the king, by the conceited man, by the drinker, by the businessman. However, he is the only one who does not seem to me ridiculous. Perhaps that is because he is preoccupied with something rather than himself.”

On seeking pleasure in the smallest things
You see the fields of corn? Well, I don’t eat bread. Corn is of no use to me. Corn fields remind me of nothing. Which is sad. On the other hand, your hair is the colour of gold. So think how wonderful it will be when you have tamed me. The corn, which is golden, will remind me of you. And I shall come to love the sound of the wind in the field of corn…

On loving because she/he is yours to love
The little prince went of to look at the [5000] roses again.
“You are nothing like my rose,” he told them. “As yet you are nothing at all. Nobody has tamed you, and you have tamed nobody. You are as my fox used to be. He was just a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I made him my friend, and now he is unique in the world.”
And the roses felt uncomfortable.
“You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on.
“One could not die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But in herself she matters more than all of you together, since it is she that I watered; since it is she that I placed under the glass dome; since it is she that I sheltered with the screen; since it is she whose caterpillars I killed. Since it is she that I listened to, when she complained, or boasted, or when she was simply being silent. Since it is she who is my rose.”

On internal beauty
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it is hiding a well.”
To my surprise, I suddenly understood for the first time this mysterious radiation of the sands. When I was a little boy I lived in a very old house where, according to hearsay, a treasure was buried. Of course, nobody ever discovered it, nor perhaps did they even look for it. But it cast a spell over that whole house. My home was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart.
“Yes,” I said to the little prince. “Whether it is a house, or stars, or the desert, what makes their beauty is invisible!”

On the most important lesson: Of heart matters
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “Now here is my secret, very simply: you can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important.”
“People have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget. You become responsible, for ever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.”