Helen Keller Quotes
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Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
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I have visited sweatshops, factories, and crowded slums. If I could not see it, I could smell it. The foundation of society is laid upon a basis of . . . individualism, conquest and exploitation . . . A social order such as this, built upon such wrong and basic principles, is bound to retard the development of all. The output of a cotton mill or a coal mine is considered of greater importance than the production of healthy, happy-hearted and free human beings. We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name.
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This world is so full of care and sorrow that it is a gracious debt we owe to one another to discover the bright crystals of delight hidden in somber circumstances and irksome tasks.
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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.
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When we do the best we can, we never know what miracles await.
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We need limitations and temptations to open our inner selves, dispel our ignorance, tear off disguises, throw down old idols, and destroy false standards. Only by such rude awakenings can we be led to dwell in a place where we are less cramped, less hindered by the ever-insistent External. Only then do we discover a new capacity and appreciation of goodness and beauty and truth.
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As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.
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It is certain that I cannot always distinguish my own thoughts from those I read, because what I read becomes the very substance and text of my mind.
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It was my teacher's genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me.
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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.
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Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
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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.
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How futile are words in the ears of those who mourn.
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Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind.
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A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.
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Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams.
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One must envision the higher life and behave as if it were a fact before it can unfold.
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The joy of surmounting obstacles which once seemed unremovable, and pushing the frontier of accomplishment further — what joy is there like unto it?
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Militarism. . . is the chief bulwark of capitalism. When it is that militarism is undermined, capitalism will fail.
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Christmas Day is the festival of optimism.
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The saddest thing in life is people with sight, but without vision.
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There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.
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No nation is wise enough to rule another.
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Smells are the fallen angels of the senses.