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Exupery 1900 - 1944 (44)

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.


QUOTES

EXTRACTS

"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."
"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."
"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
"What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"
"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing.
They also raise chickens.
These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"
"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."
"'To establish ties'?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."

Antoine de Saint Exupery, was a French writer, widely known for his book "The Little Prince", a philosopher who analyzed human nature mainly in his works "Land of the people" and "Mail of the South" and also a lover and a pioneer of aviation. He was born on June 29, 1900 in an old aristocratic family. He had a happy childhood with the exception of his father death while he was still young. At 12 he was invited to participate in a test flight, that day he decided to become at any cost aviator. In 1918, after finishing school he joined air force as an engineer, he started pilot courses and then trained to pilot fighter jets. In 1922 he had a serious accident which nearly cost him his life; as he couldn’t fly he wrote his first book: “The aviator”. In 1926 he got a job in a postal company performing flights between Toulouse and N. Africa. At intervals, while he was waiting for his next flight he finished the book "Mail of the South" which recounts among other the aviation’s adversity of that time, when they made increadbly daring flights with very few means available; many of his fellow pilots never returned. The company he worked qrow gigantic, extended to many remote areas of the world, it was purchased by a business group in 1933 and became Air France. Antoine came into conflict with the new owners and he lost his job. He was married since 1931 and he survived economically by writing "Night flight" as well as some romantic novels that became films in Hollywood.

In 1936 he spent all his savings and bought a plane, soon it was shot down by sandstorm in the desert; he was extremely lucky to be found and saved by some Bedouins in the following days. In 1937 he was hired by Air France with the aim of crossing the Atlantic and planning the air connection of Europe with Central America. A serious accident in Guatemala brings him once again in the verge of death. While he was hospitalized in New York, he wrote his two masterpieces: "Land of the people" and "Little Prince". In 1938, he returned to France and went to Spain as a war correspondent taking position against Franco. When the Second World War broke he wanted to participate as a pilot, doctors considered him too old but he used his fame and joined the squadron in Campania. He returned to America when France surrendered to the Germans, disappointed and indignant with this development, he wrote "War Pilot" there. In 1943 with the landing of Americans in Africa he used again his reputation and his connections to return to action. He manages to join a reconnaissance squadron in Corsica, flies a plane that has pilot age limit of 28 years while he is 44, has multiple injuries from previous downfalls and extra xenychtaei writing, colleagues worried but nobody dares to tell him how You should stop flights. On 07.31.1944 he left for mission and never came back. In 2003 they found the wreckage of the aircraft in the sea area near Toulouse. He was shot down by a German fighter. Later he found and the German who had beaten, an avid admirer Exupery had read all the books.