"Quand tu veux construire un bateau, ne commence pas par rassembler du bois, couper des planches et distribuer du travail, mais reveille au sein des hommes le desir de la mer grande et large."
Citadelle or The Wisdom of the Sands (1948)
"When you want to build a ship, do not begin by gathering wood, cutting
boards, and distributing work, but rather awaken within men the desire
for the vast and endless sea."
source, see also this link
More 'Wisdom of the Sands':
"Our task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it."
"The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk,
and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to
win the sky."
"Confuse not love with the raptures of possession, which bring the cruellest of sufferings. For, notwithstanding the general opinion, love does not cause suffering: what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love's opposite."
The Wisdom of the Sands (Citadelle 1948), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
