Quotes by Helen Keller

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

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"Securityis 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 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."

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

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

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

"No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves - and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"Knowledge is love and light and vision."

"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."

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

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

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

"The highest result of education is tolerance."

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious."

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

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

"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."

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