Helen Keller quotes
Helen Keller (born June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA – died June 01, 1968)
Scarlet fever rendered Helen Keller deaf and blind at 19 months old. Despite this she learned to read (in several languages) and even speak, eventually graduating with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904. Whilst at Radcliffe she wrote “The Story of My Life”. She accomplished all of this in an age when few women attended college. But Keller’s many other achievements are impressive by any standard: she wrote 13 books, devoted her life to social reform & was the author of countless articles. Keller lectured on behalf of the disabled, & was an active suffragist, pacifist, and socialist. Keller helped start several foundations that continue to improve the lives of the deaf and blind around the world.
Quotes
”Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
“We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough.”
“Change: A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.”
“For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again and keep it better, I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon. Every struggle is a victory. One more effort and I reach the luminous cloud, the blue depths of the sky, the uplands of my desire.”
“The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision.”
“We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”
“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.”
“Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
