Helen Keller Quotes
-
I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings.
-
I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.
-
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.
-
Serious harm, I am afraid, has been wrought to our generation by fostering the idea that they would live secure in a permanent order of things.
-
I know no study that will take you nearer the way to happiness than the study of nature - and I include in the study of nature not only things and their forces, but also mankind and their ways, and the moulding of the affections and the will into an earnest desire not only to be happy, but to create happiness.
-
The idea of brotherhood re-dawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed.
-
Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand.
-
The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. The touch of some hands is an impertinence. I have met people so empty of joy, that when I clasped their frosty finger-tips, it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. It may be only the clinging touch of a child's hand; but there is as much potential sunshine in it for me as there is in a loving glance for others. A hearty handshake or a friendly letter gives me genuine pleasure.
-
It has been said that life has treated me harshly; and sometimes I have complained in my heart because many pleasures of human experience have been withheld from me...if much has been denied me, much, very much, has been given me.
-
We cannot freely and wisely choose the right way for ourselves unless we know both good and evil.
-
If we make up our minds that this is a drab and purposeless universe, it will be that, and nothing else. On the other hand, if we believe that the earth is ours, and that the sun and moon hang in the sky for our delight, there will be joy upon the hills and gladness in the fields because the Artist in our souls glorifies creation. Surely, it gives dignity to life to believe that we are born into this world for noble ends, and that we have a higher destiny than can be accomplished within the narrow limits of this physical life.
-
It gives me a deep comforting sense that Things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.
-
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.
-
Defeat is simply a signal to press onward.
-
Tolerance is the first principle of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think.
-
Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.
-
My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges.
-
When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body?
-
Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
-
The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.
-
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.
-
A simple, childlike faith in a Divine Friend solves all the problems that come to us by land or sea
-
What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.
-
I have made my limitations tools of learning and true joy.