Top 461 Quotes & Sayings by Helen Keller - Page 3

So much has been given me I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.

There is beauty in everything, even in silence and darkness.

When you lose your vision, you lose contact with things. When you lose your hearing, you lose contact with people.

Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams.

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.

The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.

Observers in the full enjoyment of their bodily senses pity me, but it is because they do not see the golden chamber in my life where I dwell delighted; for, dark as my path may seem to them, I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and although sinister doubts lurk in the shadow, I walk unafraid towards the Enchanted Wood where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the Presence of the Lord.

Certainly I believe that God gave us life for happiness, not misery. Humanity, I am sure, will never be made lazy or indifferent by an excess of happiness. 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. Happiness should be a means of accomplishment, like health, not an end in itself.

Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first!

Knowledge is power." Rather, knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge - broad, deep knowledge - is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man's progress is to feel the great heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life.

To be blind is bad, but worse is to have eyes and not see.

He who is content with what has been done is an obstacle in the path of progress.

The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.

What do I consider a teacher should be? One who breathes life into knowledge so that it takes new form in progress and civilization.

Happiness is like the mountain summit. It is sometimes hidden by clouds, but we know it is there.

Look the world straight in the eye.

When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our fellow people, regardless of race, color, or creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human brother- and sisterhood, 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.

I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings.

Our beloved ones have not 'gone to a far country.' It is only the veil of sense that separates them from us, and even that veil grows thin when our thoughts reach out to them.

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars.

The clatter of a changing world is not pleasant, and those who have enjoyed the comforts and protection of the old order may be shocked and unhappy when they behold the vigorous young builders of a new world sweeping away their time-honored antiquities.

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

Some people are foolish enough to imagine that wealth and power and fame satisfy our hearts: but they never do, unless they are used to create and distribute happiness in the world.

A smile goes a long way, but you must first start it on its journey.

Every one of us is blind and deaf until our eyes are opened to our fellowmen, until our ears hear the voice of humanity.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

Even more amazing than the wonders of Nature are the powers of the spirit.

True teaching cannot be learned from text-books any more than a surgeon can acquire his skill by reading about surgery.

The heart of a friend gives out sufficient light for us in the dark to rise by.

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

Do not think of to-day's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.

Fear: the best way out is through.

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.

Friends create the world anew each day. Without their loving care, courage would not suffice to keep heartsstrong for life.

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

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.

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.

Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.

World peace will never come until the passion of supremacy is combated.

I regard philanthropy as a tragic apology for wrong conditions under which human beings live.

History is a record of the incessant struggle of humanity against ignorance and oppression.

Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought.

They took away what should have been my eyes (but I remembered Milton's Paradise). They took away what should have been my ears, (Beethoven came and wiped away my tears) They took away what should have been my tongue, (but I had talked with god when I was young) He would not let them take away my soul, possessing that I still possess the whole.

One should never count the years -- one should instead count one's interests. I have kept young trying never to lose my childhood sense of wonderment. I'm glad I still have a vivid curiosity about the world I live in.

Defeat is simply a signal to press onward.

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind.

The world is sown with good; but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field. I cannot reap a kernel of the good.

When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun. There is always a bright side - even if only that it is not worse...and it can always be worse

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

Education should train the child to use his brains, to make for himself a place in the world and maintain his rights even when it seems that society would shove him into the scrap-heap.

health in all lands is among the indispensable guarantees of human progress.

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. 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.

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.

Things must be felt with the heart.

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.

It is so pleasant to learn about new things. Every day I find how little I know, but I do not feel discouraged since God has given me an eternity in which to learn more.

The things you do today that you don't have to do will determine who, what, and where you will be when it is too late to do anything about the things you should have done.

Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.

We must not creep along when our souls cry out for us to soar!