The Little Prince (or Le petit prince in it's original language) is a book written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Published in 1943, the book tells a story of a little boy who lives on a planet far away. The book has been published in over 250 languages. Most high school French students study it in class due to the simplistic language structure and length of the book..

Technically, The Little Prince is considered a children's book, but Saint-Exupéry (or Saint-Ex, as he has been so lovingly nicknamed by the French people) tells more than just a fairytale story of a little prince traveling through space. Here are five quotes from the novel that are applicable for all ages.

1. "Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."

The first chapter of The Little Prince sets the tone for the rest of the book. The narrator draws a picture of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, but all the adults think it's a picture of a hat. A major theme of the story is that Grown-Ups have a tendency to take life too seriously and it is important for children to not end up that way. The story praises thinking outside the box and looking past what things seem to be.

2. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me."

Another theme of the book is the nature relationships; both platonic and romantic. The Little Prince becomes friends with a fox by "taming him". The Prince doesn't know what "to tame" means and asks the Fox. In the book, "to tame" is defined as "to create ties". And isn't that what friendship is? When you make a new friend, you establish a tie between you and them that forever connects you to that person. No matter how little you see each other or how far away you become, you always have that tie with that person and they are "unique in all the world" to you.

3. "But I was too young to know how to love her..."

If the Prince's relationship with the Fox is about platonic friendship, then his relationship with the Rose represents romantic relationships. The Little Prince falls in love with a beautiful, but incredibly vain and needy, rose. The Rose's increasing demands from him eventually lead the Prince to leave his planet and begin the journey that is detailed in the majority of the book. Along the way, the Prince meets many other characters and learns about himself. But in the end, he knows he loves the Rose and he must return to her. Yeah, the Prince just up and leaves his rose, but their relationship is much like the first time falling in love with someone. It is imperfect, but you learn a lot about yourself and how you relate to other people.

4. "It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others."

When the Prince goes on his journey to "find himself", he meets a lot of men. I like to think that each of these men represent types of people everyone meets in life. One such man is a king. Even though Saint-Ex doesn't paint these Grown-Ups in a very favorable light, each of them will have a little kernel of knowledge to share with the Prince. When the Prince tries to leave the King's planet, the King tempts him to stay by appointing him Minister of Justice, but the Prince is the only subject so he must judge himself.

We always see others clearer than we see ourselves or judge behavior in others that we wouldn't see as a fault within ourselves. So much of this story is about interpersonal relationships and this quote is no different.

5. "Words are the source of misunderstandings."

When the fox and the Prince are beginning their friendship, the Fox tells him not to say anything because, "Words are the source of misunderstandings". In the age of technology, misreading or overthinking a text message is not an uncommon problem. How can you tell if someone is being sarcastic online? Communication is important to any relationship, but so much of that communication comes from nonverbal cues.

The Little Prince is probably one of my all time favorite books. It's different every time I read it. In my latest rereading, it's made me less afraid of growing up (as long as I don't become obsessed by numbers and "serious things") and reminded me to cultivate my relationships as I would a garden. If you haven't read this book already, do it. Right now. It's barely 100 or so pages and there's lots of pictures.