A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”
For more than sixty years, this insight from The Little Prince has been quoted in more than 130 languages by fans around the world. Now, for the first time, quotations from the collected works and letters of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry are presented in a charming gift edition. Six chapters--“Happiness,” “Friendship,” “Responsibility,” “Fortitude,” “Love,” and “What Is Essential”--offer inspirational and thought-provoking words about the subjects held most dear by the author. A perfect gift for graduates—or for anyone who wants gentle guidance.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The oft-quoted insights of The Little Prince, as well as aphorisms from other Saint-Exupery books, such as Flight to Arras and Wind, Sand and Stars, are gathered in A Guide For Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Edited by Anna Marlis Burgard, the tiny volume offers a smattering of quotations on love, ("love is not thinking, but being") friendship and responsibility ("there is no growth except in the fulfillment of obligations"), making this a likely gift book, especially for those who believe, with Saint-Exupery, that "in giving you are throwing a bridge across the chasm of your solitude."
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-This small book of reflects the unquenchable Saint-Exup ry's view of wartime Europe in the '30s and '40s. Teens enchanted by The Little Prince will find his royal highness on the cover of this book, but much of its wisdom is drawn from other writings. Quotations are grouped under headings such as "Friendship": "Friendship is born from an identity of spiritual goals-from common navigation toward a star" and "Love": "Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction." Teens may want to tuck this gem into a backpack for the moments of solitude a journey can provide, or turn to it when the clamor of competing values threatens to overwhelm and confuse them. The annotated bibliography puts the selections in perspective by providing a brief setting for each of the author's books.
Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152167110
• ASIN: B0013L6D7Y
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,761,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY (1900-1944) was born in Lyons, France. He took his first flight at the age of eleven, and became a pilot at twenty-six. He was a pioneer of international commercial aviation and flew in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His writings include The Little Prince; Wind, Sand and Stars; and Southern Mail. In 1944, while serving with his French air squadron, he disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

92 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Wisdom is Right, September 9, 2002

By 

Kacy Wilson - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupry (Hardcover)

Let it be understood that this is a coffee table/bathroom type book. The kind of book you pick up and select a few pages and read and meditate on what it is you have just read. Perhaps you share it with a friend and get engrossed in a discussion after reading only a page or two. I suppose you could read it from cover to cover, and although you would be finished quickly I think you would be missing the point of encapsulating the brunt of a prolific writer's works into 96 pages each with only one or two sentences on them. The idea is to revisit the world of Antione de Saint-Exupery and linger a little bit longer than you did the first time you read his works.

If you are familiar with the works of Antoine De Saint-Exupery, you will probably recognize just what part of each story the quotes are taken from. You will also instantly recall the magical way in which Saint-Exupery was able to reveal the his subtle wisdom in regards to happiness, friendhsip, love, grief, etc. in a way that was accessible to children, but still profound to the most discerning adult. If you are only familiar with The Little Prince, than perhaps this little guide will do a lot to bring you up to speed on Saint-Exupery's entire body of everyday philosophy.

I doubt that anyone who has never heard of Saint-Exupery or any of his stories will appreciate this book much. The magic of Saint-Exupery has to be experienced before one learns how to detect the depth of his thoughts in these short quotations. As a gift this book is still an excellent idea, but perhaps it should be given in conjunction with at least one other Saint-Exupery book, if the recipient is completely new to Saint Exupery.

I will serenely conclude here before I start taking my opinion too seriously.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just good common sense, April 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupry (Hardcover)

Lovely quotations regarding Love, Friendship etc. that make you feel all warm and cozy. Makes you want to pick up and read Wind, Sand, Stars and The Little Prince all over again and also look up at the stars once again with new feeling.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exupery's Essential Wisdom Distilled For a Quick Drink, November 8, 2006

By 

Roger Peter Marec (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide for Grown-ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupry (Hardcover)

This is an extremely short read. It took me 10 minutes, and I am a slow reader. The quotes have been pulled from Exupery's seven works. I am not crazy about Exupery's storytelling such as The Little Prince, but I can tell that he was a deep and caring thinker. Every now and then one of his observations is so artistically succinct and beautifully rendered that it bears restatement.

Here are my favorite quotes from this book:

"People haven't time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in the stores. But since there are no stores where you can buy friends, people no longer have friends."

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."

"People have forgotten this truth... But you musn't forget it. You become responsible forever for what you have tamed."

"A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them."

"The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then a dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky."

"What ought we be? That is the essential question, the question that concerns spirit and not intelligence. For spirit impregnates intelligence with the creation that is to come forth. And later, intelligence is brought to bed of creation."

"Experience will guide us to the rules. You cannot make rules precede practical experience."

"Life creates order, but order does not create life."

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eye."

Four Stars