The Little Prince_|林_乐明无念

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

英文原文请参考本人英中英模式诵读的同名专辑《The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念》

查看英文原文请看本人“英-中-英”版本的同名专辑：The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念

查看英文原文请看本人“英-中-英”版本的同名专辑：The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念

查看英文原文请看本人“英-中-英”版本的同名专辑：The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念

查看英文原文请看本人“英-中-英”版本的同名专辑：The Little Prince小王子_英中英_|山林_乐明无念

"Hum! Hum!" said the king. "I have good reason to believethat somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. You canjudge this old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. Thus hislife will depend on your justice. But you will pardon him on each occasion; forhe must be treated thriftily. He is the only one we have.""I," replied the little prince, "do not like to condemnanyone to death. And now I think I will go on my way.""No," said the king.But the little prince, having now completed his preparations fordeparture, had no wish to grieve the old monarch."If Your Majesty wishes to be promptly obeyed," he said,"he should be able to give me a reasonable order. He should be able, forexample, to order me to be gone by the end of one minute. It seems to me thatconditions are favorable..."As the king made no answer, the little prince hesitated a moment. Then,with a sigh, he took his leave."I made you my Ambassador," the king called out, hastily.He had a magnificent air of authority."The grown-ups are very strange," the little prince said tohimself, as he continued on his journey.

"If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?""You," said the little prince firmly."Exactly. One much require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable.""Then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a question once he had asked it."You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable.""When will that be?" inquired the little prince."Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a bulky almanac. "Hum! Hum! That will be about-- about-- that will be this evening about twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed."The little prince yawned. He was regretting his lost sunset. And then, too, he was already beginning to be a little bored."I have nothing more to do here," he said to the king. "So I shall set out on my way again.""Do not go," said the king, who was very proud of having a subject. "Do not go. I will make you a Minister!""Minister of what?""Minster of-- of Justice!""But there is nobody here to judge!""We do not know that," the king said to him. "I have not yet made a complete tour of my kingdom. I am very old. There is no room here for a carriage. And it tires me to walk.""Oh, but I have looked already!" said the little prince, turning around to give one more glance to the other side of the planet. On that side, as on this, there was nobody at all..."Then you shall judge yourself," the king answered. "that is the most difficult thing of all. 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.""Yes," said the little prince, "but I can judge myself anywhere. I do not need to live on this planet.

[ Chapter 10 ] - the little prince visits thekingHe found himself in the neighborhood of the asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328,329, and 330. He began, therefore, by visiting them, in order to add to hisknowledge.The first of them was inhabited by a king. Clad in royal purple andermine, he was seated upon a throne which was at the same time both simple andmajestic."Ah! Here is a subject," exclaimed the king, when he saw thelittle prince coming.And the little prince asked himself:"How could he recognize me when he had never seen me before?"He did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all menare subjects."Approach, so that I may see you better," said the king, whofelt consumingly proud of being at last a king over somebody.The little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but theentire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king's magnificent ermine robe.So he remained standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned."It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king,"the monarch said to him. "I forbid you to do so.""I can't help it. I can't stop myself," replied the littleprince, thoroughly embarrassed. "I have come on a long journey, and I havehad no sleep""Ah, then," the king said. "I order you to yawn. It isyears since I have seen anyone yawning. Yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity.Come, now! Yawn again! It is an order.""That frightens me... I cannot, any more..." murmured the littleprince, now completely abashed."Hum! Hum!" replied the king. "Then I-- I order yousometimes to yawn and sometimes to--"He sputtered a little, and seemed vexed.For what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authorityshould be respected. He tolerated no disobedience. He was an absolute monarch.But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable.

[ Chapter 9 ] - the little prince leaves his planetI believe that for his escape he took advantage of the migration of a flock of wild birds. On the morning of his departure he put his planet in perfect order. He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes. He possessed two active volcanoes; and they were very convenient for heating his breakfast in the morning. He also had one volcano that was extinct. But, as he said, "One never knows!" So he cleaned out the extinct volcano, too. If they are well cleaned out, volcanoes burn slowly and steadily, without any eruptions. Volcanic eruptions are like fires in a chimney.On our earth we are obviously much too small to clean out our volcanoes. That is why they bring no end of trouble upon us.The little prince also pulled up, with a certain sense of dejection, the last little shoots of the baobabs. He believed that he would never want to return. But on this last morning all these familiar tasks seemed very precious to him. And when he watered the flower for the last time, and prepared to place her under the shelter of her glass globe, he realised that he was very close to tears."Goodbye," he said to the flower.But she made no answer."Goodbye," he said again.The flower coughed. But it was not because she had a cold."I have been silly," she said to him, at last. "I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy..."He was surprised by this absence of reproaches. He stood there all bewildered, the glass globe held arrested in mid-air. He did not understand this quiet sweetness."Of course I love you," the flower said to him. "It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you-- you have been just as foolish as I. Try to be happy... let the glass globe be. I don't want it any more.""But the wind--""My cold is not so bad as all that... the cool night air will do me good. I am a flower.""But the animals--""Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies-- and the caterpillars-- who will call upon me? You will be far away... as for the large animals-- I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws."And, naively, she showed her four thorns. Then she added:"Don't linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!"For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower.

"If I ordered a general," he would say, by way of example,"if I ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if thegeneral did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general. It wouldbe my fault.""May I sit down?" came now a timid inquiry from the littleprince."I order you to do so," the king answered him, and majesticallygathered in a fold of his ermine mantle.But the little prince was wondering... The planet was tiny. Over whatcould this king really rule?"Sire," he said to him, "I beg that you will excuse myasking you a question--""I order you to ask me a question," the king hastened to assurehim."Sire-- over what do you rule?""Over everything," said the king, with magnificent simplicity."Over everything?"The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, andall the stars."Over all that?" asked the little prince."Over all that," the king answered.For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal."And the stars obey you?""Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly. Ido not permit insubordination."Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had beenmaster of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the sunset,not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred, or eventwo hundred times, with out ever having to move his chair. And because he felta bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he had forsaken, he pluckedup his courage to ask the king a favor:"I should like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... Order thesun to set..."

"I think it is time for breakfast," she added an instant later."If you would have the kindness to think of my needs--"And the little prince, completely abashed, went to look for asprinkling-can of fresh water. So, he tended the flower.So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity-- whichwas, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with. One day, forinstance, when she was speaking of her four thorns, she said to the littleprince:"Let the tigers come with their claws!""There are no tigers on my planet," the little prince objected."And, anyway, tigers do not eat weeds.""I am not a weed," the flower replied, sweetly."Please excuse me...""I am not at all afraid of tigers," she went on, "but Ihave a horror of drafts. I suppose you wouldn't have a screen for me?""A horror of drafts-- that is bad luck, for a plant," remarkedthe little prince, and added to himself, "This flower is a very complexcreature...""At night I want you to put me under a glass globe. It is very coldwhere you live. In the place I came from--"But she interrupted herself at that point. She had come in the form of aseed. She could not have known anything of any other worlds. Embarassed overhaving let herself be caught on the verge of such a navie untruth, she coughed two or three times, in order toput the little prince in the wrong. "The screen?""I was just going to look for it when you spoke to me..."Then she forced her cough a little more so that he should suffer fromremorse just the same.So the little prince, in spite of all the good will that was inseparablefrom his love, had soon come to doubt her. He had taken seriously words whichwere without importance, and it made him very unhappy."I ought not to have listened to her," he confided to me oneday. "One never ought to listen to the flowers. One should simply look atthem and breathe their fragrance. Mine perfumed all my planet. But I did notknow how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbedme so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."And he continued his confidences:"The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I oughtto have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and herradiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to haveguessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowersare so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her..."

[ Chapter 8 ] - the rose arrives at the little prince's planetI soon learned to know this flower better. On the little prince's planet the flowers had always been very simple. They had only one ring of petals; they took up no room at all; they were a trouble to nobody. One morning they would appear in the grass, and by night they would have faded peacefully away. But one day, from a seed blown from no one knew where, a new flower had come up; and the little prince had watched very closely over this small sprout which was not like any other small sprouts on his planet. It might, you see, have been a new kind of baobab.The shrub soon stopped growing, and began to get ready to produce a flower. The little prince, who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud, felt at once that some sort of miraculous apparition must emerge from it. Butthe flower was not satisfied to complete the preparations for her beauty in the shelter of her green chamber. She chose her colours with the greatest care. She adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to go out into the world all rumpled, like the field poppies. It was only in the full radiance of her beauty that she wished to appear. Oh, yes! She was a coquettish creature! And her mysterious adornment lasted for days and days.Then one morning, exactly at sunrise, she suddenly showed herself.And, after working with all this painstaking precision, she yawned andsaid:"Ah! I am scarcely awake. I beg that you will excuse me. My petals are still all disarranged..."But the little prince could not restrain his admiration:"Oh! How beautiful you are!""Am I not?" the flower responded, sweetly. "And I was born at the same moment as the sun..."The little prince could guess easily enough that she was not any too modest - but how moving - and exciting-- she was!

"The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years. For millions of years the sheep have been eating them just the same. And is it not a matter of consequence to try to understand why the flowers go to so much trouble to grow thorns which are never of any use to them? Is the warfare between the sheep and the flowers not important? Is this not of more consequence than a fat red-faced gentleman's sums? And if I know-- I, myself-- one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing-- Oh! You think that is not important!"His face turned from white to red as he continued:"If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself, 'Somewhere, my flower is there...' But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened... And you think that is not important!"He could not say anything more. His words were choked by sobbing.The night had fallen. I had let my tools drop from my hands. Of what moment now was my hammer, my bolt, or thirst, or death? On one star, one planet, my planet, the Earth, there was a little prince to be comforted. I took him in my arms, and rocked him. I said to him:"The flower that you love is not in danger. I will draw you a muzzle for your sheep. I will draw you a railing to put around your flower. I will--"I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering. I did not know how I could reach him, where I could overtake him and go on hand in hand with him once more.It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

I did not answer. At that instant I was saying to myself: "If thisbolt still won't turn, I am going to knock it out with the hammer." Againthe little prince disturbed my thoughts."And you actually believe that the flowers--""Oh, no!" I cried. "No, no no! I don't believe anything. Ianswered you with the first thing that came into my head. Don't you see-- I amvery busy with matters of consequence!"He stared at me, thunderstruck."Matters of consequence!"He looked at me there, with my hammer in my hand, my fingers black withengine-grease, bending down over an object which seemed to him extremelyugly..."You talk just like the grown-ups!"That made me a little ashamed. But he went on, relentlessly:"You mix everything up together... You confuse everything..."He was really very angry. He tossed his golden curls in the breeze."I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He hasnever smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved anyone. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all day hesays over and over, just like you: 'I am busy with matters of consequence!' Andthat makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man-- he is a mushroom!""A what?""A mushroom!"Thelittle prince was now white with rage.

[ Chapter 7 ] - the narrator learns about thesecret of the little prince's life On the fifth day-- again, as always, it was thanks to the sheep-- thesecret of the little prince's life was revealed to me. Abruptly, withoutanything to lead up to it, and as if the question had been born of long andsilent meditation on his problem, he demanded:"A sheep-- if it eats little bushes, does it eat flowers, too?""A sheep," I answered, "eats anything it finds in itsreach.""Even flowers that have thorns?""Yes, even flowers that have thorns.""Then the thorns-- what use are they?"I did not know. At that moment I was very busy trying to unscrew a boltthat had got stuck in my engine. I was very much worried, for it was becomingclear to me that the breakdown of my plane was extremely serious. And I had solittle drinking-water left that I had to fear for the worst."The thorns-- what use are they?"The little prince never let go of a question, once he had asked it. As forme, I was upset over that bolt. And I answered with the first thing that cameinto my head:"The thorns are of no use at all. Flowers have thorns just forspite!""Oh!"There was a moment of complete silence. Then the little prince flashedback at me, with a kind of resentfulness:"Idon't believe you! Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassurethemselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terribleweapons..."

[ Chapter 6 ] - the little prince and the narrator talk about sunsetsOh, little prince! Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of your sad little life... For a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset. I learned that new detail on the morning of the fourth day, w hen you said to me: "I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset now." "But we must wait," I said. "Wait? For what?" "For the sunset. We must wait until it is time." At first you seemed to be very much surprised. And then you laughed to yourself. You said to me: "I am always thinking that I am at home!" Just so. Everybody knows that when it is noon in the United States the sun is setting over France. If you could fly to France in one minute, you could go straight into the sunset, right from noon. Unfortunately, France is too far away for that. But on your tiny planet, my little prince, all you need do is move your chair a few steps. You can see the day end and the twilight falling whenever you like... "One day," you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!" And a little later you added: "You know-- one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..." "Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?" But the little prince made no reply.

 "It is a question of discipline," the little prince said to me later on. "When you've finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care. You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rosebushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth. It is very tedious work," the little prince added, "but very easy." And one day he said to me: "You ought to make a beautiful drawing, so that the children where you live can see exactly how all this is. That would be very useful to them if they were to travel some day. Sometimes," he added, "there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day. But when it is a matter of baobabs, that always means a catastrophe. I knew a planet that was inhabited by a lazy man. He neglected three little bushes..." So, as the little prince described it to me, I have made a drawing of that planet. I do not much like to take the tone of a moralist. But the danger of the baobabs is so little understood, and such considerable risks would be run by anyone who might get lost on an asteroid, that for once I am breaking through my reserve. "Children," I say plainly, "watch out for the baobabs!" My friends, like myself, have been skirting this danger for a long time, without ever knowing it; and so it is for them that I have worked so hard over this drawing. The lesson which I pass on by this means is worth all the trouble it has cost me. Perhaps you will ask me, "Why are there no other drawing in this book as magnificent and impressive as this drawing of the baobabs?" The reply is simple. I have tried. But with the others I have not been successful. When I made the drawing of the baobabs I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.

[ Chapter 5 ] - we are warned as to the dangers of the baobabsAs each day passed I would learn, in our talk, something about the little prince's planet, his departure from it, his journey. The information would come very slowly, as it might chance to fall from his thoughts. It was in this way that I heard, on the third day, about the catastrophe of the baobabs. This time, once more, I had the sheep to thank for it. For the little prince asked me abruptly-- as if seized by a grave doubt-- "It is true, isn't it, that sheep eat little bushes?" "Yes, that is true." "Ah! I am glad!" I did not understand why it was so important that sheep should eat little bushes. But the little prince added: "Then it follows that they also eat baobabs?" I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes, but, on the contrary, trees as big as castles; and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him, the herd would not eat up one single baobab.  The idea of the herd of elephants made the little prince laugh. "We would have to put them one on top of the other," he said. But he made a wise comment: "Before they grow so big, the baobabs start out by being little." "That is strictly correct," I said. "But why do you want the sheep to eat the little baobabs?" He answered me at once, "Oh, come, come!", as if he were speaking of something that was self-evident. And I was obliged to make a great mental effort to solve this problem, without any assistance. Indeed, as I learned, there were on the planet where the little prince lived-- as on all planets-- good plants and bad plants. In consequence, there were good seeds from good plants, and bad seeds from bad plants. But seeds are invisible. They sleep deep in the heart of the earth's darkness, until some one among them is seized with the desire to awaken. Then this little seed will stretch itself and begin-- timidly at first-- to push a charming little sprig inoffensively upward toward the sun. If it is only a sprout of radish or the sprig of a rose-bush, one would let it grow wherever it might wish. But when it is a bad plant, one must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant that one recognizes it. Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces... 

To Leon Werth I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up.  I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. Allgrown-ups were once children -- although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication: To Leon Werthwhen he was a little boy

But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference. I should have liked to begin this story in the fashion of the fairy-tales. I should have like to say: "Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself, and who had need of a sheep..." To those who understand life, that would have given a much greater air of truth to my story. For I do not want any one to read my book carelessly. I have suffered too much grief in setting down these memories. Six years have already passed since my friend went away from me, with his sheep. If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure that I shall not forget him. To forget a friend is sad. Not every one has had a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown-ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures... It is for that purpose, again, that I have bought a box of paints and some pencils. It is hard to take up drawing again at my age, when I have never made any pictures except those of the boa constrictor from the outside and the boa constrictor from the inside, since I was six. I shall certainly try to make my portraits as true to life as possible. But I am not at all sure of success. One drawing goes along all right, and another has no resemblance to its subject. I make some errors, too, in the littl e prince's height: in one place he is too tall and in another too short. And I feel some doubts about the color of his costume. So I fumble along as best I can, now good, now bad, and I hope generally fair-to-middling. In certain more important details I shall make mistakes, also. But that is something that will not be my fault. My friend never explained anything to me. He thought, perhaps, that I was like himself. But I, alas, do not know how to see sheep through t he walls of boxes. Perhaps I am a little like the grown-ups. I have had to grow old.

If I have told you these details about the asteroid, and made a note of its number for you, it is on account of the grown-ups and their ways. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him. If you were to say to the grown-ups: "I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof," they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: "I saw a house that cost $20,000." Then they would exclaim: "Oh, what a pretty house that is!" Just so, you might say to them: "The proof that the little prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists." And what good would it do to tell them that? They would shrug their shoulders, and treat you like a child. But if you said to them: "The planet he came from is Asteroid B-612," then they would be convinced, and leave you in peace from their questions. They are like that. One must not hold it against them. Children should always show great forbearance toward grown-up people. 

[ Chapter 4 ]  - the narrator speculates as to which asteroid from which the little prince came　 I had thus learned a second fact of great importance: this was that the planet the little prince came from was scarcely any larger than a house! But that did not really surprise me much. I knew very well that in addition to the great planets-- such as the Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Venus-- to which we have given names, there are also hundreds of others, some of which are so small that one has a hard time seeing them through the telescope. When an astronomer discovers one of these he does not give it a name, but only a number. He might call it, for example, "Asteroid 325."  I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612. This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909. On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said.Grown-ups are like that... Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.