Five Lessons From The Little Prince to Help You Become a Better Person
The book, The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is one of the most widely read books of all time. Although it’s considered a children’s book due to the simplicity of its narrative, it deals with profound topics such as the meaning of life, love, friendship, loneliness, and loss.
The great lessons included in The Little Prince transport you to a world full of essentiality linked with wisdom. You see images and situations that are a great example of your difficulties and the ridiculous way that you sometimes behave. Because life, in reality, isn’t as complicated as you often make it.
The innocent story of The Little Prince shows you a world parallel to reality. It concerns the true essence of all of us and is a deep reflection on the condition of human nature. In fact, its teachings make you question the way you’re living and raise your awareness of how you can learn to be a better person.
“They throw themselves into the rapids but they no longer know what they are looking for. So they get agitated and go round in circles.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry-
Lessons from The Little Prince
The Little Prince is considered to be a masterpiece. Indeed, it’s capable of surprising and capturing the attention of anyone, from children to adults. Its beauty lies in its profound teachings, which are captured in simple language. Furthermore, it’s full of words that evoke wonderful images and it’s loaded with sensitivity and tenderness.
The author wrote this work straight from the heart. That’s why his words have reached so many people. As a matter of fact, the five wise reflections that we share below could change your life if you follow them.
1. The essential is invisible
This is one of the best-known reflections from The Little Prince. In fact, it’s particularly relevant in today’s world. That’s because we’re superficially attached to materialism, competitiveness, and appearances.
“What is essential is invisible to the eye”, reminds you that there’s so much more to the world than mere appearances. Because the important things are those that can’t be seen. They’re those that are felt, like love, kindness, generosity, and friendship.
The details are in the little things that often go unnoticed. Material things are ephemeral, and valuing the environment for its appearance and materiality is a path that undoubtedly only leads to suffering. However, love and kindness are two aspects that, in principle, are invisible, but have the power to change the world.
2. Know yourself and you’ll be able to understand others better
Getting to know yourself is always more complicated than judging others. Indeed, it’s all too easy to complain about how the world is and how you’d like it to be. However, what are you doing yourself to contribute to a better world?
The moment you become aware of who you are and commit yourself to being a better person is when you’re really ready to help and share your love with other people who are a part of who you are. There are no good or bad people. There are those who do what they can, the best way they know how, with what they have. A person can’t give what they don’t have, so it’s important to cultivate love.
“It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”
When you begin to understand yourself, you start to understand others. You realize that others are seeking happiness just like you. However, not everyone seeks it in the right way. Nevertheless, without a doubt, it’s always helpful to try and understand the mistakes of others.
3. Love means looking to the future together
Love involves two people. However, this special union loses meaning and strength if there’s no reciprocity. Indeed, love is built through collaboration. If one partner lets go, the other person has to bear all the weight. This is how it ends up being destroyed.
For both people to walk in the same direction guided by the strength of love, they need to share their life goals. The fact of sharing joys, experiences, and common interests gives sustenance and vitality to two souls who are sharing this extraordinary journey called love.
4. Maintain your dreams and your innocence despite your bad experiences
As you accumulate experiences, your mistrust also increases. You lose the freshness that innocence gives you. The observing, exploring, and experiencing of the new that each day offers you. You’re left with no appreciation of how extraordinary everything is that happens to you.
It’s inevitable to feel pain when you go through the anguish of difficult situations. It’s a part of your personal development. Furthermore, you need to keep hold of your hopes in order to be able to continue to give meaning to everything that happens to you. Your hopes are impregnated with your feelings.
“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”
When you remove that armor you’ve built around yourself, you begin to see the world with different eyes once more. Fresh eyes that observe and appreciate how wonderful a sunrise is, or a hug, or a smile.
5. Dare to really get to know people
You tend to pay far too much attention to what you have and far too little to what you are. Venturing to know someone in depth is the way to find their true essence, their most real beauty. However, you tend to make external prejudiced assessments, and you don’t give yourself the opportunity to get to know anything about the other person without already conditioning this knowledge. As a matter of fact, you can only reach love if you generate the possibility of knowing and understanding others.
“Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: ‘What does his voice sound like?’ ‘What games does he like best?’ ‘Does he collect butterflies?’ They ask: ‘How old is he?’ ‘How many brothers does he have?’ ‘How much does he weigh?’ ‘How much money does he have?’ Only then do they think they know him.”
It’s fascinating that this story that seems, at first, to be only for children, has so many lessons that only an adult could understand. Reading and re-reading it will remind you that it has so much it can teach you. Which one of our five lessons is your favorite?