Helen Keller Quotes
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Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design.
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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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There's only one story, the story of your life.
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Usually they are quick to discover that I cannot see or hear.... It is not training but love which impels them to break their silence about me with the thud of a tail rippling against my chair on gambols round the study, or news conveyed by expressive ear, nose, and paw. Often I yearn to give them speech, their motions are so eloquent with things they cannot say.
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We can drift along with general opinion and tradition, or we can throw ourselves upon the guidance of the soul within and steer courageously toward truth... We have a choice in every event and every limitation and....to choose is to create.
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We must not creep along when our souls cry out for us to soar!
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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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Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
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I believe war is the inevitable fruit of our economic system.
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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.
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People often ... have no idea how fair the flower is to the touch, nor do they appreciate its fragrance, which is the soul of the flower.
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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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I learned that it is possible for us to create light, sound and order within us no matter what calamity befall us in the outer world.
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Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
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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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I will eat grandfather for dinner.
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The worst thing in the world is not to be born blind, but to be born with sight, and yet have no vision.
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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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The mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that 'W-A-T-E-R' meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, joy, set it free.
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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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How futile are words in the ears of those who mourn.
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To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.
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The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
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The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.