A man who took spiritual steps for mankind with his gentle words, pilot-turned-writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900-1944) was born on this day in Lyon, France.

"It is only with the heart that one can rightly see; what is essential is invisible to the eye," he wrote in The Little Prince (1943).

The memorable 92-page novella about a pilot who crashes in the Sahara Desert and meets the wise little boy from Asteroid B-612 was written during World War II and published just a year before his plane was shot down over the Mediterranean.

The Little Prince celebrated beautiful metaphors and simple truths about the meaning of life, love, responsibility, and friendship.

The narrator's illustrations are simple, but add to the tone of childhood innocence. "Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction," said Saint Exupéry, a lyrical poet who looked below the surface and searched for beauty with the heart.

Like the wise philosopher Voltaire before him, Saint Exupéry honored the French concept of the nobility of man. "One only understands the things that one tames," he believed.

This seemingly simple book sparkles like stars of wisdom and has been printed in 80 languages with over 25 million copies sold. "A single event," Saint Exupéry wrote, "can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born."

More Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Quotations

Take a step, then another.