Helen Keller Quotes
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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.
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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.
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I have never believed that my limitations were in any sense punishments or accidents. If I had held such a view, I could never have expected the strength to overcome them.
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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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Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.
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Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.
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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.
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Deep, solemn optimism, it seems to me, should spring from this firm belief in the presence of God in the individual; not a remote, unapproachable governor of the universe, but a God who is very near every one of us, who is present not only in earth, sea and sky, but also in every pure and noble impulse of our hearts.
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I hung about the dangerous frontier of "guess," avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason.
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What if in my waking hours a sound should ring through the silent halls of hearing? ... Would the bow and string tension of life snap? Would the heart over weighted with sudden joy stop beating for very excess of happiness?
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There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
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Next to a leisurely walk I enjoy a spin on my tandem bicycle. It is splendid to feel the wind blowing in my face and the springy motion of my iron steed. The rapid rush through the air gives me a delicious sense of strength and buoyancy, and the exercise makes my pulse dance and my heart sing.
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Every one of us is blind and deaf until our eyes are opened to our fellowmen, until our ears hear the voice of humanity.
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The continued lynchings and other crimes against negroes, whether in New England or the South, and unspeakable political exponents of white supremacy, according to all recorded history, augur ill for America's future.
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Ignorance, poverty, and greed must disappear so that light can prevail in all places.
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My darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold, the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness.
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One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
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It is curious to observe what different ideals of happiness people cherish, and in what singular places they look for this well-spring of their life. Many look for it in the hoarding of riches, some in the pride of power, and others in the achievements of art and literature; a few seek it in the exploration of their own minds, or in search for knowledge.
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We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.
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The power of effecting changes for the better is within ourselves, not in the favorableness of circumstances.
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I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
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Surely there is no road of effort so steep but a loving deed may soften its hardshness.
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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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The highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the tribes and the nations, have been optimists.