Saint-Exupéry dismantles the romanticized notion of love as mutual absorption—that intoxicating phase where two people become each other's entire world. Instead, he insists that genuine partnership requires a shared *purpose* beyond the relationship itself, whether that's raising children with aligned values, building something together, or even just wanting the same kind of world. A couple can gaze adoringly at each other for years and still drift apart if they haven't bothered to ask: *Where are we actually going?* The wisdom cuts especially deep for long marriages, where the initial electricity fades and what remains is either a meaningful collaboration or two people sitting in comfortable silence with nothing left to say.