Helen Keller quotes:

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.

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

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, 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.

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

Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

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

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

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.

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

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

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

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

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

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.

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.

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.

Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.

True happiness... is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.

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

College isn't the place to go for ideas.

Knowledge is love and light and vision.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

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

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.

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.

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

Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.

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

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

It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.

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

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

No one has a right to consume happiness without producing 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.

We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings.

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

If you can dream it, you can do it.

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

I read from Mark Twain's lips one or two of his good stories. He has his own way of thinking, saying and doing everything. I feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake. Even while he utters his cynical wisdom in an indescribably droll voice, he makes you feel that his heart is a tender Iliad of human sympathy."

I have heard of the stars, of the play of light on the wavesthese i would like to seebut far more than sight i wish for my ears to be openedthe voice of a friendthe imaginations of mozartlife without these is darker by far than blindness"

Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living."

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

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

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

I sometimes wonder if the hand is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye. I should think the wonderful rhythmical flow of lines and curves could be more subtly felt than seen. Be this as it may, I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks in their marble gods and goddesses.

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.

Where once stood the steadfast pines, great, beautiful, sweet, my hand touched raw, moist stumps. All about lay broken branches, like the antlers of stricken deer. The fragrant, piled-up sawdust swirled and tumbled about me. An unreasoning resentment flashed through me at the ruthless destruction of the beauty that I love.

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.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.

In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their "large loves and heavenly charities.

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 most beautiful world is always entered through imagination.

To keep our faces toward chance and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

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 something that I can do.

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.

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.

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

There is much in the Bible against which every instinct of my being rebels, so much that I regret the necessity which has compelled me to read it through from beginning to end. I do not think that the knowledge which I have gained of its history and sources compensates me for the unpleasant details it has forced upon my attention.

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

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

When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use.

Ruth is so loyal and gentle-hearted, we cannot help loving her, as she stands with the reapers amid the waving corn. Her beautiful, unselfish spirit shines out like a bright star in the night of a dark and cruel age. Love like Ruth's, love which can rise above conflicting creeds and deep-seated racial prejudices, is hard to find in all the world.

Masculine exhalations are, as a rule, stronger, more vivid,more widely differentiated than those of women. In the odor of young men there is something elemental, as of fire, storm, and salt sea. It pulsates with buoyancy and desire. It suggests all the things strong and beautiful and joyous and gives me a sense of physical happiness.

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.

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

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

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

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.

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

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.

A simple, childlike faith in a Divine Friend solves all the problems that come to us by land or sea

I have walked with people whose eyes are full of light but who see nothing in sea or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in books. It were far better to sail forever in the night of blindness with sense, and feeling, and mind, than to be content with the mere act of seeing. The only lightless dark is the night of darkness in ignorance and insensibility.

It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length.

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

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

Doubts and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.

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

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

Faith reinvigorates the will, enriches the affections, and awakens a sense of creativeness. Active faith knows no fear, and it is a safeguard to me against cynicism and despair.

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 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.

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.

I can see in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden.

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.

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

I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus- the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir, and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.

Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge - broad, deep knowledge - is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations.

If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life. If, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing.

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.

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

I cannot but say a word and look my disapproval when I hear that my country is spending millions for war and war engines-more, I have heard, than twice as much as the entire public school system costs the nation.

True friends never apart maybe in distance but never in heart

A child must feel the flush of victory and the heart-sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will to the tasks distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way through a dull routine of textbooks.

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

I don't give a damn about semi-radicals!

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

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

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

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

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.

Look the world straight in the eye.

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

I look upon the whole world as my fatherland, and every war has to me the horror of a family feud.

Happiness is the final and perfect fruit of obedience to the laws of life.

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.

The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I conquered, as the first baby in the family always does.

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