Helen Keller Quotes

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

“Now I feel as if I should succeed in doing something in mathematics, although I cannot see why it is so very important. . . The knowledge doesn't make life any sweeter or happier, does it?”

“I believe humility is a virtue, but I prefer not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”

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

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

“During the first nineteen months of my life I had caught glimpses of broad, green fields, a luminous sky, trees and flowers which the darkness that followed could not wholly blot out. If we have once seen, "the day is ours, and what the day has shown."”

“Museums and art stores are also sources of pleasure and inspiration. Doubtless it will seem strange to many that the hand unaided by sight can feel action, sentiment, beauty in the cold marble; and yet it is true that I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. As my finger tips trace line and curve, they discover the thought and emotion which the artist has portrayed.”

“Life is a daring adventure or nothing.”

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

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

“Your success and happiness lie in you.”

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

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

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

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long in disappointment and bitterness at the closed door that we do not expectantly look for and therefore see with pleasure and gratitude the one which has been opened for us.”

“Oh, you think the darkness is your ally, but you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”

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

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

“Surely there is no road of effort so steep but a loving deed may soften its hardshness.”