Quotes from Helen Keller

Security is a myth. Mankind as a whole does not experience it, nor does it exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

The German puts strength before beauty, and truth before convention, both in life and in literature. There is a vehement, sledge-hammer vigour about everything that he does. When he speaks, it is not to impress others, but because his heart would burst if he did not find an outlet for the thoughts that burn in his soul. Then, too, there is in German literature a fine reserve which I like; but its chief glory is the recognition I find in it of the redeeming potency

My teacher read me The Chambered Nautilus [a nature poem], and showed me that the shell-building process of the mollusks is symbolical of the development of the mind. Just as the wonder-working mantle of the nautilus changes the material it absorbs from the water and makes it a part of itself, so the bits of knowledge one gathers undergo a similar change and become pearls of thought.

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

I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges, and, guided by the sense of smell, would find the first violets and lilies.

Veli?anstvenost bogatstva ljudskoga iskustva izgubila bi svoju vrednost i užitak kada ne bi postojale neke prepreke koje moramo presko?iti. Trenutak osvajanja planine ne bi bio ni upola toliko prekrasan kada ne bi bilo onih mra?nih dolina koje smo prebrodili.

Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came, And in a little time we shall return again Into the vast, unanswering dark.

One brief spring, musical with the song of robin and mocking-bird, one summer rich in fruit and roses, one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager, delighted child.

As I wander through the dark, encountering difficulties, I am aware of encouraging voices that murmur from the spirit realm. I sense a holy passion pouring down from the springs of Infinity. I thrill to music that beats with the pulses of God. Bound to suns and planets by invisible cords, I feel the flame of eternity in my soul.

You can burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas in them have seeped through a million channels and will continue to quicken other minds.

God is love, God is our Father, and we are His children; therefore the darkest clouds will break, and though right be worsted, wrong shall not triumph.

It were better far to sail forever in the night of blindness, with sense and feeling and mind, than to be thus content with the mere act of seeing. They have the sunset, the morning skies, the purple of distant hills, yet their souls voyage through this enchanted world with a barren stare.

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.

how on still nights, when there is no breeze stirring the waves, the Nautilus sails on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean in his "ship of pearl.

Only by contact with evil could I have learned to feel by contrast the beauty of truth and love and goodness.

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

Les parfums sont de puissants magiciens pouvant vous transporter au travers des années que vous avez vécues.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence.

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

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." ? Helen Keller, The Open Door

But I did not dream that that interview would be the door through which I should pass from darkness into light, from isolation to friendship, companionship, knowledge, love.

Each individual has a subconscious memory of the green earth and murmuring waters, and blindness and deafness cannot rob him of this gift from past generations. This inherited capacity is a sort of sixth sense- a soul sense which sees, hears, and feels, all in one.

Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations to beautiful privileges, and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation.