Helen keller quotes

Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Worse than being blind would be to be able to see but not have any vision.

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.

There will never be another now - I'll make the most of today. There will never be another me - I'll make the most of myself.

A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life.

The best educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail.

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.

The most beautiful world is always entered through imagination.

Fear: the best way out is through.

God doesn't promise security from life's storms but security in life's storms. God doesn't always call the equipped, but he will always equip the called. In the long run, avoiding danger is no safer than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun.

Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. Hear the music of voices, the song of birds, the mighty strains of an orchestra as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow . . . Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Glory in all the facts of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you.

Blindness separates us from things but deafness separates us from people.

Only in quietness do we possess our own minds and discover the resources of the Inner Life.

The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.

Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

Do not think of to-day's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

Friends create the world anew each day. Without their loving care, courage would not suffice to keep heartsstrong for life.

A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere, and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles... Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.

Defeat is simply a signal to press onward.

The simplest way to be happy is to do good.

So much has been given me I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.

The things you do today that you don't have to do will determine who, what, and where you will be when it is too late to do anything about the things you should have done.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

The bulk of the world's knowledge is an imaginary construction.

Once I knew the depth where no hope was and darkness lay on the face of all things. Then love came and set my soul free.

My darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold, the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness.

You will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

The danger of having the Constitution twisted and misconstrued to support vested interests and prejudices must be guarded against if American democracy is to maintain a progressive character.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower - the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.

Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly.

Even more amazing than the wonders of Nature are the powers of the spirit.

We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.

Happiness is like the mountain summit. It is sometimes hidden by clouds, but we know it is there.

It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.

Even if you have a problem, you don't need to be one.

The best things in life are unseen, thats why we close our eyes when we kiss, cry, and dream

Everybody talks, nobody listens. Good listeners are as rare as white crows.

Observers in the full enjoyment of their bodily senses pity me, but it is because they do not see the golden chamber in my life where I dwell delighted; for, dark as my path may seem to them, I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and although sinister doubts lurk in the shadow, I walk unafraid towards the Enchanted Wood where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the Presence of the Lord.

Each day comes to me with both hands full of possibilities.

Every one of us is blind and deaf until our eyes are opened to our fellowmen, until our ears hear the voice of humanity.

The best things in life are not seen or heard ... but felt with the heart.

If I, deaf, blind, find life rich and interesting, how much more can you gain by the use of your five senses!

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.

I thank God for my handicaps. For through them, I have found myself, my work and my God.

There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

The best Christmas gift of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up with one another. Jesus is the reason for the season! From a little spark may burst a mighty flame. The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means we choose between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. We elect expensive masters to do our work for us, and then blame them because they work for themselves and for their class.

Happiness is a state of mind, and depends very little on outward circumstances.

Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first!

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.

We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

A smile goes a long way, but you must first start it on its journey.

Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

With every friend I love who has been taken into the brown bosom of the earth a part of me has been buried there; but their contribution to my being of happiness, strength and understanding remains to sustain me in an altered world.

When we complain of having to do the same thing over and over, let us remember that God does not send new trees, strange flowers and different grasses every year. When the spring winds blow, they blow in the same way. In the same places the same dear blossoms lift up the same sweet faces, yet they never weary us. When it rains, it rains as it always has. Even so would the same tasks which fill our daily lives put on new meanings if we wrought them in the spirit of renewal from within--a spirit of growth and beauty.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

Making a mistake is falling down; failure is not getting up again.

Your success and happiness lie in you. External conditions are the accidents of life, its outer trappings.

I will not just live my life. I will not just spend my life. I will invest my life.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

We betray ourselves into smallness when we think the little choices of each day are trivial.

When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun. There is always a bright side - even if only that it is not worse...and it can always be worse

Burn brightly without burning out. Throw your heart over the fense and the rest will follow. Keep your face to the sunshine and you wont see the shadows

The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!

For three things I thank God every day of my life: thanks that he has vouchsafed me knowledge of his works; deep thanks that he has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep, deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to--a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song.

The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.

Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the worlds at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.

The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

There is beauty in everything, even in silence and darkness.

When we do the best we can, we never know what miracles await.

What really counts in life is the quiet meeting of every difficulty with the determination to get out of it all the good there is.

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

Often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

The way forward is simple - just follow Christ!

My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges.

I believe there are angels among us, sent down to us from somewhere up above. They come to you and me in our darkest hours, to show us how to live, to teach us how to give, to guide us with a light of love.

The power of effecting changes for the better is within ourselves, not in the favorableness of circumstances.

When you lose your vision, you lose contact with things. When you lose your hearing, you lose contact with people.

I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.

There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

When I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me I withdraw all charges against life. If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given. So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart I shall say that life is good.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing.

Better to be blind and see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.

No smile is as beautiful as the one that struggles through tears.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

It is so pleasant to learn about new things. Every day I find how little I know, but I do not feel discouraged since God has given me an eternity in which to learn more.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

Education should train the child to use his brains, to make for himself a place in the world and maintain his rights even when it seems that society would shove him into the scrap-heap.

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

Things must be felt with the heart.

When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our fellow people, regardless of race, color, or creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human brother- and sisterhood, until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.

The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place.