A Guide for Grown-Ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This is a must read for all adults. There are so many explanations about emotions and the meaning of love and respect for other humans. After all, we are a disgusting species considering what we do to each other and what we do to ourselves. I am a better man for reading the book.

"of your troubles that you find serenity."-from Wartime Writings 1939-1944 This small, 83 page book, Guide for Grown-ups, contains selected quotes from the several books and poems that Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote during his lifetime. The title for this review contains the only words found on page 72. I picked up this book the other day and this quote really spoke to me at this time in my life. I bought several of these with the intention of giving them out as gifts. I still have one left; the quotes are great ones to meditate on. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, writer of The Little Prince, was an aviator who served in the French Air Corps during WWII; he presumably died in 1944 during a mission flying over the Mediterranean. I haven't read any of his books, however, I do love this little one.

I'm a huge fan of St. Exupery. His writings are fantastic. This book pulls out some of the beautiful prose he wrote and oh it's just wonderful to open the book to some page, read the passage/phrase and then sit and savor it, meditate on it. I love this book. Glad it was compiled. Highly highly recommended.

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.

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.