278 Inspiring Quotes by Helen Keller

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

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

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security 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 exposure.

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.

Once I knew the depth where no hope was and darkness lay on the face of all things. Then love came and set my soul free.

A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.

Gullibility is the key to all adventures. The greenhorn is the ultimate victor in everything; it is he who gets the most out of life.

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

The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor.

Christmas Day is the festival of optimism.

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.

We betray ourselves into smallness when we think the little choices of each day are trivial.

There are moments when I feel that the Shylocks, the Judases, and even the Devil are broken spokes in the great wheel of good which shall in due time be mad whole.

Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within.

The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

In the country one sees only nature's fair works, and one's soul is not saddened by the cruel struggle for mere existence that goes on in the crowded city.

It is always painful to set one's self against tradition, especially against the conventions and prejudices that hedge about womanhood.

Through my handicaps, I have found my self, my work, my God.

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

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.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

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

Reality even when it is sad is better than illusions. Illusions are at the mercy of any winds that blow. Real happiness must come from within, from a fixed purpose and faith in one's fellow men.

On Power:
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 richness of the human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome.

Joy is a spiritual element that gives vicissitudes unity and significance.

College isn't the place to go for ideas.

I will eat grandfather for dinner.

We the living, should not think of the dead as lonely because if they could speak to us, they would say: "Do not weep for me, earth was not my true country, I was an alien there: I am at Home where everyone comes.

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

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.

The tragic side of many architectural enterprises is that they destroy natural beauties which are a priceless possession and cannot be replaced.

THE most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me.

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.

In times of danger large groups rise to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, courage and sacrifice ... Mankind will be refashioned and history rewritten when this law is understood and obeyed.

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

A good education is a stepping-stone to wealth.

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

I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and no way of knowing how near the harbor was.

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.

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

We should not think of conversion as the acceptance of a particular creed, but as a change of heart.

If I write what my soul thinks it will be visible, and the words will be its body.

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.

Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.

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.

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

It is better to have no sight than it is to have no vision.

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

The simplest way to be happy is to do good.

Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first!

Commercial concerns have expanded from family business to corporate wealth which is self-perpetuating and which enlightened statesmen and economists now dread as the most potent oligarchy yet produced.

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.

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.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow.

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

The worst thing in the world is not to be born blind, but to be born with sight, and yet have no vision.

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.

There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness.

In a word, literature is my utopia.

Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.

This great republic is a mockery of freedom as long as you are doomed to dig and sweat to earn a miserable living while the masters enjoy the fruit of your toil.

The million little things that drop into your hands, The small opportunities each day brings, He leaves us free to use or abuse, And goes unchanging along His silent way.

The only moral virtue of war is that it compels the capitalist system to look itself in the face and admit it is a fraud. It compels the present society to admit that it has no morals it will not sacrifice for gain.

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

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

If the blind put their hands in God's, they find their way more surely than those who see but have not faith or purpose.

Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations to beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation.

If I could have only one of my senses then I would choose hearing, Then I wouldn't feel so all alone.

Burn brightly without burning out. Throw your heart over the fense and the rest will follow. Keep your face to the sunshine and you wont see the shadows.

Instead of being satisfied to alleviate suffering, we shall labor hard and continually to prevent it.

The idea of brotherhood re-dawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed.

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

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

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

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

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world -- the company of those who have known suffering.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

How easy it is to fly on paper wings!

How spiritually blind are men that they fail to see that we are bound together. We rise or fall together; we are dwarfed or godlike, free or chained, together.

Do not think of todays failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.

For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine.

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

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

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

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

Only by contact with evil could I have learned to feel by contrast the beauty of truth and love and goodness.

Resolve to keep happy and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

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.

Be happy with what you have while working for what you want.

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.

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

It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life.

Our worst foes are not belligerent circumstances, but wavering spirits.

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

The worst calamity: 'To have eyes and fail to see.'

My friends have made the story of my life.

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

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.

Literature is my Utopia.

What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us.

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

We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.

Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.

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

It is not possible to refer a complex difficulty to a single cause.

The only real blind person at Christmas time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.

Smells are the fallen angels of the senses.

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.

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

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

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

Things must be felt with the heart.

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

Let pessimism once take hold of the mind, and life is all topsy-turvy, all vanity and vexation of spirit. There is no cure for individual or social disorder, except in forgetfulness and annihilation.

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

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

Be happy, talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours.

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

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

Death is no more than passing from one room into another.

One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.

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

The most beautiful world is always entered through imagination.

Only in quietness do we possess our own minds and discover the resources of the Inner Life.

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

I have made my limitations tools of learning and true joy.

I hung about the dangerous frontier of "guess," avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason.

I also dislike people who try to talk down to my understanding. they are like people who when walking with you try to shorten their steps to suit yours, hypocrisy in both cases is equally exasperating.

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.

I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.

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.

The mind is as big as the universe.

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.

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.

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.

I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower -- the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.

One cannot consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

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

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.

Blindness separates people from things;
deafness separates people from people.

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

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

I rejoice to live in such a splendidly disturbing time!

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.

The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

Truly I have looked in the very heart of darkness and refused to yield to its paralyzing influence, but in spirit I am one of those who walk the morning.

What is worse than having no sight is being able to see but having no vision.

If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of human thought.

The best Christmas gift of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up with one another.

Defeat is simply a signal to press onward.

Worse than being blind would be to be able to see but not have any vision.

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

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

Happiness is a state of mind, and depends very little on outward circumstances.

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

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

I fall, I stand still... I trudge on. I gain a little... I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory.

Speech is the birthright of every child. It is the deaf child's one fair chance to keep in touch with his fellows.

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

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

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

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

Even if you have a problem, you don't need to be one.

True friends never apart maybe in distance but never in heart.

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.

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

People don't like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

There will never be another now --
I'll make the most of today.
There will never be another me --
I'll make the most of myself.

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.

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.

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

I will not just live my life. I will not just spend my life. I will invest my life.

The way forward is simple -- just follow Christ!

I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than walk alone in the light.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therein to be content.

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.

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

Life is a daring adventure or nothing.

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

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind.

Knowledge is love and light and vision.

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

I, who have never heard a sound, tell you there is no silence, and I, who have never seen a ray of light, tell you there is no darkness.

If we believe that the sun and moon hang in the sky for our delight, there will be joy upon the hills and gladness in the fields.

The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched. but are felt in the heart.

We 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.

Once it was necessary that the people should multiply and be fruitful if the race was to survive. But now to preserve the race it is necessary that people hold back the power of propagation.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Believe. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted island, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

The bible gives me a deep comforting sense that (things seen are temporal,and things unseen are eternal.

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

Rebuffed, but always persevering; self-reproached, but ever regaining faith; undaunted, tenacious, the heart of man labors toward immeasurably distant goals.

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

My life has been happy because I have had wonderful friends and plenty of interesting work to do.

Look the world straight in the eye.

There is plenty of courage among us for the abstract, but not for the concrete.

Smell is a fallen angel.

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.

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

The highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the tribes and the nations, have been optimists.

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

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

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

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