Genuine, and easy to place: it is the fox’s parting secret in chapter XXI of The Little Prince, published in New York in April 1943. One caveat worth knowing — Saint-Exupéry wrote it in French (“on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux”); this exact English sentence is Katherine Woods’s 1943 translation.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” the fox, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, trans. Katherine Woods (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943), ch. 21. Verified at quotle.info
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In context
Evoking the world of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — French aviator, airmail pioneer & writer. Theme: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
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Provenance
The source
Work
The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)
First published
April 1943, New York — Reynal & Hitchcock, English and French editions issued together
Translation
Katherine Woods (1886–1968), 1943 — the source of this exact English wording
Location
Chapter XXI — the fox’s parting secret
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Chapter XXI
Spoken by the fox as the little prince prepares to leave him, at the close of chapter XXI. Saint-Exupéry’s French reads: “Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”
Wikiquote’s sourced entry ↗ places the line in chapter XXI and gives the French original alongside this exact English wording, plus four competing variant translations.
Wikipedia ↗ confirms the first edition: Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, April 1943, English and French together, with Woods (1886–1968) as the first English translator.
The Morgan Library’s catalogue record ↗ documents the surviving working manuscript, drafted c. July–October 1942 on onionskin paper and acquired by the Morgan in 1968.
The Little Prince was first published in 1943, which puts it firmly under US copyright: it does not enter the American public domain until 2039 ↗, 95 years from first publication. Two layers apply here — Saint-Exupéry’s French text and Katherine Woods’s 1943 English translation, which is the wording quoted on this page. In France the term runs to 2033, extended by a wartime allowance and a further 30 years because Saint-Exupéry was declared “Mort pour la France.”
Fact-check
What people get wrong
This one is not a fake — it is a rare case where a hugely popular quote is exactly what it claims to be. The errors here are subtler: who wrote the English, who says the line, and which translation you are actually holding.
✕
The wordingKatherine Woods, uncredited Translator erased
Saint-Exupéry wrote “L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.” The sentence quoted on a million graduation cards — “what is essential is invisible to the eye” — is Katherine Woods’s 1943 rendering ↗. She chose the singular “eye,” and the rhythm that made it stick, and almost nobody credits her.
✕
The speakerThe fox, not the little prince Wrong character
It is the fox’s parting secret in chapter XXI ↗, given to the prince as he leaves. It is routinely posted as though the prince, or Saint-Exupéry in his own voice, said it.
✕
The editionRichard Howard’s 2000 translation Not the same sentence
Keller’s similar-sounding line about the best and most beautiful things being “felt with the heart” gets swapped for this one and vice versa. It is a separate quote, and Quote Investigator traces it back to Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan, via an 1891 letter ↗ — not to Saint-Exupéry.
✓Saint-Exupéry really wrote it, the fox really says it, and it is really in chapter XXI ↗. The English sentence you love, though, was written by Katherine Woods in 1943.
Context
Why the fox says it
The fox has just taught the little prince what it means to tame something — that a rose becomes irreplaceable not because of anything visible about it, but because of the hours you poured into it. The secret is the fox’s goodbye gift: a rule for seeing that the prince needs in order to understand why his rose, an ordinary rose among thousands, is the only one in the universe.
It reads as gentle children’s-book philosophy, and it was written by a man in exile in wartime New York in 1942, drafting on onionskin paper, who would be flying reconnaissance missions over occupied Europe within two years. The tenderness is not naive. It was written by someone who knew exactly what was about to be invisible to him.
The fox is not telling the prince to feel more. He is telling him that what he already spent is what makes the rose real.
How the book came to be written in New York
Saint-Exupéry drafted Le Petit Prince around July–October 1942 in Manhattan and on Long Island. The surviving working manuscript — 175 unbound onionskin leaves in pencil and ink, plus preparatory watercolours — is at the Morgan Library & Museum ↗, which purchased it in 1968. He had given it to a friend, Silvia, before leaving to rejoin the war.
Reynal & Hitchcock issued the English and French editions in New York in April 1943. The book did not appear in France until after the Liberation — Saint-Exupéry’s work had been banned under the Vichy regime.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1900–1944 · French aviator, airmail pioneer & writer
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry flew mail routes over the Sahara and the Andes before turning the experience into literature — Night Flight, Wind, Sand and Stars, and finally The Little Prince, which he wrote and illustrated during a wartime exile in New York and on Long Island in 1942. He was a working pilot to the end: in July 1944 he took off from Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and never came back, and France later designated him “Mort pour la France.” He never saw the book become one of the most translated works ever published.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source — Chicago
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, trans. Katherine Woods (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943), chap. 21. Originally published as Le Petit Prince (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943).
MLA (9th ed.)
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de. The Little Prince. Translated by Katherine Woods, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943.
APA (7th ed.)
Saint-Exupéry, A. de. (1943). The little prince (K. Woods, Trans.). Reynal & Hitchcock.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye’?” Last verified 15 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-is-only-with-the-heart-that-one-can-see-rightly-what-is