Isn't that important?

On the fifth day, thanks again to the sheep, another secret of the little prince's life was revealed to me. Abruptly, with no preamble, he asked me, as if it were the fruit of a problem long pondered in silence:
If a sheep eats brushes, does it eat flowers, too?
A sheep eats whatever it finds.
Even flowers that have thorns?
Yes. Even flowers the have thorns.
Then what good are thorns?
I didn't know. At that moment I was very busy trying to unscrew a bolt that was jammed in my engine. I was quite worried, for my plane crash was beginning to seem extremely serious, and the lack of drinking water made me fear the worst.
What good are thorns?
The little prince never let go of a question once he had asked it. I was annoyed by my jammed bolt, and I answered without thinking.
Thorns are no good for anything--they're just the flowers' way of being mean!
Oh!
But after a silence, he lashed out at me, with a sort of bitterness.
I don't believe you! Flowers are weak. They're naive. They reassure themselves whatever way they can. They believe their thorns make them frightening...
I made no answer. At that moment I was thinking, If this bolt stays jammed, I'll knock it off with the hammer. Again the little prince disturbed my reflections.
Then you think flowers...
No, not at all. I don't think anything! I just said whatever came into my head. I'm busy here with something serious!
He stared at me, astounded...
...You talk just like the grown-ups!
This made me a little ashamed...
...The little prince was now quite pale with rage.
For millions of years flowers have been producing thorns. For millions of years sheep have been eating them all the same. And it's not serious, trying to understand why flowers go to such trouble to produce thorns that are good for nothing? It's not important, the war between the sheep and the flowers?...Suppose I happen to know a unique flower, one that exists nowhere in the world except on my planet, one that a little sheep can wipe out in a single bite one morning, just like that, without even realizing what he's doing--isn't that important?...
...He couldn't say another word. All of a sudden he burst out sobbing. Night had fallen. I dropped my tools. What did I care about my hammer, about my bolt, about thirst and death? There was, on one star, on one planet, on mine, the Earth, a little prince to be consoled...I told him,
The flower you love is not in danger...I'll draw a muzzle for your sheep...I'll draw you a fence for your flower...I...
I didn't know what to say...It's so mysterious, the land of tears...

-Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince

Why be scared of a hat?

Once when I was six I saw a magnificent picture in a book about the jungle called True Stories. It showed a boa constrictor swallowing a wild beast...In those days I thought a lot about jungle adventures, and eventually managed to make my first drawing, using a colored pencil. My drawing Number One looked like this:

I showed the grown-ups my masterpiece, and I asked them if my drawing scared them. They answered, "Why be scared of a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. Then I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so the grown-ups could understand. They always need explanations. My drawing Number Two looked like this:

The grown-ups advised me to pit away my drawings of boa constrictors, outside or inside, and apply myself...That is why at the age of six I abandoned my magnificent career as an artist...So then I had to choose another career, and I learned how to pilot airplanes... ...I lived all alone, without anyone I could really talk to, until I had to make a crash landing in the Sahara Desert...The first night...I went to sleep on the sand a thousand miles from any inhabited country. I was more isolated than a man shipwrecked on a raft in the middle of the ocean. So you can imagine my surprise when I was awakened at daybreak by a funny little voice saying, "Please...draw me a sheep..."
"What?"
"Draw me a sheep..."
...Since I had never drawn a sheep, I made him one of the only two drawings I new how to make--the one of the boa constrictor from the outside. And I was astounded to hear the little fellow answer:
"No! No! I don't want an elephant inside a boa constrictor. A boa constrictor is very dangerous, and an elephant would get in the way. Where I live everything is very small. I need a sheep. Draw me a sheep..."

--Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince