Antoine de Saint-Exupery Quotes

All the faith and good will in the world is wasted without direction.

You figure out what you value in this life, and then you go for it. For me, it was freedom.

If you want people to take action, you must refrain from giving them the answers.

If you don't have a vision, nothing happens.

Free from what? What does that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall your eye show to me: free for what?

When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed. What keeps you in such positions is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every maneuver in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours, it is yours to lose - you are more motivated, more creative, more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.

Having a sense of purpose is having a sense of self. A course to plot is a destination to hope for.

Hold up a mirror and ask yourself what you are capable of doing, and what you really care about. Then take the initiative - don't wait for someone else to ask you to act.

Throughout the day no time for memorandums now. Go ahead! Liberty and independence forever.

The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.

We are born to action; and whatever is capable of suggesting and guiding action has power over us from the first.

It is not what France gave you but what it did not take from you that was important.

All real freedom springs from necessity, for it can be gained only through the exercise of the individual will, and that will can be roused to energetic action only by the force of necessity acting upon it from the outside to spur it to effort.

If there was one word on a motivation or world view, that one word would be 'liberty.' That's what inspires me and motivates me more than anything - just the concept of freedom, liberty, what it means.

Today, charting your own course isn't just more necessary than ever before. It's also much easier - and much more fun.

We actually believe in hope. But hope requires purpose. And purpose requires direction.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Nothing comes sailing by itself.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you'll be amazed at the results.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.

I've always known where I wanted to go in life.

Freedom is a great horse to ride, but you have to know your destination.

More than purely economic measures are required [for the Russian peasant]. He must be granted the freedom of individual and personal initiative and the opportunity to intensify his productivity by hiring labor. He must have the right of free, unhampered cooperative association, with a voluntary--not as heretofore obligatory--membership, the right of free election to the administrative machinery --not appointment from above, as has been the practice all these years.