Helen Keller, a very determined, deafblind woman ever to graduate from university. She became a role model for millions of people as a champion of social justice, a talented public speaker and an inspiration to millions around the globe. Here are some of her insightful quotations.
It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
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.
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.
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.
As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud 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.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.
College isn't the place to go for ideas.
God himself is not secure, having given man dominion over his work.
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 can say with conviction that the struggle which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women. It lets us into the soul of things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcomings of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail.
I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
I have often been asked, ''Do not people bore you?'' I do not understand quite what that means. I suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always inopportune. 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; the hypocrisy in both cases is equally exasperating.
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 sometimes wonder if the hand is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye. I should think the wonderful rhythmical flow of lines and curves could be more subtly felt than seen. Be this as it may, I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks in their marble gods and goddesses.
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.
When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
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.
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.
What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.
When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us.
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