Helen Keller Quotes

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

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

The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place.

Better to be blind and see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.

The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

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

A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.

Things must be felt with the heart.

You will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.

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

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges.

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.

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

The highest result of education is tolerance.

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

Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly.

Making a mistake is falling down; failure is not getting up again.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better.

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

We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means we choose between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. We elect expensive masters to do our work for us, and then blame them because they work for themselves and for their class.

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

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

I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.

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

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

The simplest way to be happy is to do good.