Helen Keller Quotes & Sayings

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. — Helen Keller

Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours ... never doubt the excellence and permanence of what is yet to be. Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. — Helen Keller

We differ, blind and seeing, one from another, not in our senses, but in the use we make of them, in the imagination and courage with which we seek wisdom beyond all senses. — Helen Keller

My life has been happy because I have had wonderful friends and plenty of interesting work to do, — Helen Keller

Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows. — Helen Keller

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

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

The mind is as big as the universe. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

For three things I thank God every day of my life: thanks that he has vouchsafed me knowledge of his works; deep thanks that he has set in my darkness the lamp of faith; deep, deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to
a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song. — Helen Keller

First they ask me to tell the life of the child who is mother to the woman. Then they make me my own daughter and ask for an account of grown-up sensations. Finally I am requested to write about my dreams, and thus I become an anachronical grandmother; for it is the special privilege of old age to relate dreams. — Helen Keller

In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. 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. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their large loves and heavenly charities. — Helen Keller

The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. The touch of some hands is an impertinence. I have met people so empty of joy, that when I clasped their frosty finger-tips, it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. It may be only the clinging touch of a child's hand; but there is as much potential sunshine in it for me as there is in a loving glance for others. A hearty handshake or a friendly letter gives me genuine pleasure. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

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

I think the degree of a nation's civilisation may be measured by the degree of enlightenment of its women. — Helen Keller

I never fight, except against difficulties. — Helen Keller

The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

The greatest tragedy in life is people who have sight but no vision. — Helen Keller

Is love the sweetness of flowers? — Helen Keller

It is better to have no sight than it is to have no vision. — Helen Keller

I prefer to stroll which has a buddy at nighttime, than by itself inside the light. — Helen Keller

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

College isn't the place to go for ideas. — Helen Keller

I am just as deaf as I am blind. The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important than those of blindness. Deafness is a much worse misfortune. For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus- the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir, and keeps us in the intellectual company of man. — Helen Keller

Change may be the vitalizing wind blowing through the house of life, but it is not an abiding force. We need permanent things to soak peace into us as well as progress - the beauty of the earth, seedtime and harvest, the smiles of lovers, the joy of the young in being alive, pride in craftsmanship. Why, oh why must we let ourselves forget these lasting treasures in an age of consuming ambition, speed madness and accumulated goods that leave us no chance to live? If we cannot be contented with a little no wealth will ever satisfy us. — Helen Keller

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much — Helen Keller

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

When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun. — Helen Keller

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world. — Helen Keller

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

True, they were broken and stammering syllables; but they were human speech. My soul, conscious of new strength, came out of bondage, and was reaching through those broken symbols of speech to all knowledge and all faith. — Helen Keller

Masculine exhalations are, as a rule, stronger, more vivid,more widely differentiated than those of women. In the odor of young men there is something elemental, as of fire, storm, and salt sea. It pulsates with buoyancy and desire. It suggests all the things strong and beautiful and joyous and gives me a sense of physical happiness. — Helen Keller

FOR some inexplicable reason the sense of smell does not hold the high position it deserves among its sisters. There is something of the fallen angel about it. When it woos us with woodland scents and beguiles us with the fragrance of lovely gardens, it is admitted frankly to our discourse. But when it gives us warning of something noxious in our vicinity, it is treated as if the demon had got the upper hand of the angel, and is relegated to outer darkness, punished for its faithful service. — Helen Keller

He makes you feel that if you only had a little more time, you, too, might be an inventor. — Helen Keller

What if in my waking hours a sound should ring through the silent halls of hearing? ... Would the bow and string tension of life snap? Would the heart over weighted with sudden joy stop beating for very excess of happiness? — Helen Keller

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

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. — Helen Keller

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships. — Helen Keller

You are amazed at all the things you know which are not on the examination paper. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

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

Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing at all. — Helen Keller

So imagination crowns the experience of my hands. And they learned their cunning from the wise hand of another, which, itself guided by imagination, led me safely in paths that I knew not, made darkness light before me, and made crooked ways straight. — Helen Keller

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

Don't give me the peace that passeth understanding, give me understanding. — Helen Keller

To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable. — Helen Keller

I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate
that we could mold our lives into any form we pleased ... I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he threw himself valiantly into life's struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about ... I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone. — Helen Keller

Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

Out of this sorrowful experience I understand more fully all human strivings, thwarted ambitions, and the infinite capacity of hope. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

All that we love deeply becomes part of us. — Helen Keller

Great poetry, whether written in Greek or in English, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. — Helen Keller

The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! — Helen Keller

Few pleasures there are indeed without an aftertouch of pain, but that is the preservation which keeps them sweet. — Helen Keller

Militarism ... is the chief bulwark of capitalism. When it is that militarism is undermined, capitalism will fail. — Helen Keller

I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring. — Helen Keller

Life is either a great adventure or nothing. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision. — Helen Keller

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

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

I found that of the senses, the eye is the most superficial, the ear the most arrogant, smell the most voluptuous, taste the most superstitious and fickle, touch the most profound and the most philosophical. — Helen Keller

The civilization of a state should be measured by the amount of suffering it prevents and the degree of happiness it makes possible for its citizens. — Helen Keller

A man must understand evil and be acquainted with sorrow before he can write himself an optimist and expect others to believe that he has reason for the faith that is in him. — Helen Keller

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

A tangible object passes complete into my brain with the warmth of life upon it, and occupies the same place that it does in space; for, without egotism, the mind is as large as the universe. — Helen Keller

Poverty is the fundamental cause of most of the physical, moral and economic ills of humanity. — Helen Keller

I will eat grandfather for dinner. — Helen Keller

Some of the most significant discoveries in modern science owe their origin to the imagination of men who had neither accurate knowledge nor exact instruments to demonstrate their beliefs. — Helen Keller

No smile is as beautiful as the one that struggles through tears. — Helen Keller

A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life. — Helen Keller

Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within — Helen Keller

Your success & happiness lies in you. — Helen Keller

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

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

I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten- my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine! — Helen Keller

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

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. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

Until they give me opportunity to write about matters that are not-me, the world must go on uninstructed and unreformed, and I can only do my best with the one small subject upon which I am allowed to discourse. — Helen Keller

Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world. — Helen Keller

All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident. Facts are stubborn, and refusal to accept them does not avoid their inexorable effects-the tragic consequences are now upon us — Helen Keller

Our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding. — Helen Keller

Surely there is no road of effort so steep but a loving deed may soften its hardshness. — Helen Keller

I have never believed that my limitations were in any sense punishments or accidents. If I had held such a view, I could never have expected the strength to overcome them. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

I read from Mark Twain's lips one or two of his good stories. He has his own way of thinking, saying and doing everything. I feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake. Even while he utters his cynical wisdom in an indescribably droll voice, he makes you feel that his heart is a tender Iliad of human sympathy. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

Cut off as I am, it is inevitable that I should sometimes feel like a shadow walking in a shadowy world. When this happens I ask to be taken to New York City. Always I return home weary but I have the comforting certainty that mankind is real flesh and I myself am not a dream. — Helen Keller

The sun and the air are God's free gifts to all, we say; but are they so? In yonder city's dingy alleys the sun shines not, and the air is foul. Oh, man, how dost thou forget and obstruct thy brother man, and say, "Give us this day our daily bread," when he has none! Oh, would that men would leave the city, its splendour and its tumult and its gold, and return to wood and field and simple, honest living! Then would their children grow stately as noble trees, and their thoughts sweet and pure as wayside flowers. — Helen Keller

Blindness separates people from things;
deafness separates people from people. — Helen Keller

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. — Helen Keller

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

A good education is a stepping-stone to wealth. — Helen Keller