“And the voice spoke even more deliberately: '...but remember what is under the ocean of clouds: eternity.'And suddenly that tranquil world, the world of such simple harmony that you discover as you rise above the clouds, took on an unfamiliar quality in my eyes. All that gentleness became a trap. In my mind's eye I saw that vast white trap laid out, right under my feet. Beneath it reigned neither the restlessness of men nor the living tumult and motion of cities, as one might have thought, but a silence that was even more absolute, a more final peace. That viscous whiteness was turning before my eyes into the boundary between the real and the unreal, between the known and the unknowable. And I was already beginning to sense that a spectacle has no meaning except when seen through a culture, a civilization, a professional craft.”

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About Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French writer, poet, journalist and aviator

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a French writer, poet, journalist, and aviator. He is best known as the author of The Little Prince. His work combines literary writing with the experience of flight, which shaped both his reputation and the tone of his best-known book. He is remembered for prose that moves between travel, reflection, and the wider human concerns that appear in his writing.

More from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (104 quotes) →

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Books by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Le petit prince

1971

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Vol de nuit

1974

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Terre des hommes

1966

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Pilote de guerre

2007

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