Helen Keller Quotes

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

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

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

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.

Every one of us is blind and deaf until our eyes are opened to our fellowmen, until our ears hear the voices of humanity.

Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill.

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

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

Happiness is a state of mind, and depends very little on outward circumstances. Cultivate happiness in yourself and in others, and you will wonder at the beauty, the richness, the power that come from you through your bright spirit.

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 the something that I can do.

I do not want the peace that passes understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

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.

I really care for nothing in the world but liberty in all the departments of life - liberty to grow mentally and spiritually, untrampled by tradition and arbitrary standards. 

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.

If we don't make the most of ourselves, how can we expect to be made much of by others?

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

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.

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.

It is not required of every man and woman to do or be something great. Most of us have to be content to take small parts in the drama of life.

It is said that success is happiness. I think good-will and service to all men are the true kind of happiness.

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

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

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

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.

More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.

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

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.

Only people count. Only people who think and feel and work together make civilization.

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

Optimism that does not count the cost, is like a house built on sand.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The best and most beautiful thing in life is friendship that springs out of the heart, as fragrances out of the flower.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

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

The world is sown with good; but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field, I can not reap a kernel of good.

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

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

True education combines intellect, beauty, goodness, and the greatest of these is goodness.

Unless we can help the world where we are, we could not help it if we were somewhere else.

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.

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

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

What induces a child to learn but his delight in knowing?

What life can be more satisfying than to think high thoughts undisturbed and keep one's spirit in the strong, simple wisdom of nature's ways?

What really counts in life is the quiet meeting of every difficulty with determination to get out of it all the good there is.

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

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

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