Quotes from Helen Keller

I trust, and I recognize the beneficence of the power which we all worship as supreme- Order, Fate, the Great Spirit, Nature, God. I recognize this power in the sun that makes all things grow and keeps life afoot. I make a friend of this indefinable force…this is my religion of optimism.

I am no worshiper of cloth of any color, but I love the red flag and what it symbolizes to me and other Socialists. I have a red flag hanging in my study, and if I could I should gladly march with it past the office of the Times and let all the reporters and photographers make the most of the spectacle.

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

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 before us.

One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education-rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, "There is joy in self-forgetfulness.

Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, 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.

It is always painful to set one's self against tradition, especially against the conventions & prejudices that hedge about womanhood.

This world is so full of care and sorrow that it is a gracious debt we owe to one another to discover the bright crystals of delight hidden in somber circumstances and irksome tasks.

Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight with the wind in his hair.

Truly I have looked into the very heart of darkness, and refused to yield to its paralyzing influence, but in spirit I am one of those who walk the morning. What if all dark, discouraging moods of the human mind come across my way as thick as the dry leaves of autumn? Other feet have traveled that road before me, and I know the desert leads to god as surely as the green, refreshing fields, and orchards.

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.

Blind people are just like seeing people in the dark. The loss of sight does not impair the qualities of mind and heart.

True, I cannot see the stars scattered like gold dust in the heavens, but stars just as bright shine in my soul.

there are as many opinions as there are men.

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

Life has two rules: #1 Never quit #2 Always remember rule # 1. "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.

Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than to outrun exposer. the fearful are caught as often as the bold.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad

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

Many scholars forget, it seems to me, that our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding.

Even as the roots, shut in the darksome earth, Share in the tree-top's joyance, and conceive Of sunshine and wide air and winged things, By sympathy of nature, so do I

Words are the mind's wings, are they not?