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I Do Not Mean To Object To A Thorough Knowledge Of The Famous Works We Read. I Object Only To The Interminable Comments And Bewildering Criticisms That Teach But One Thing: There Are As Many Opinions As There Are Men.

-Helen Keller

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I Do Not Mean

Helen Keller

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I Do Not Mean To Object To A Thorough Knowledge Of The Famous Works We Read. I Object Only To The Interminable Comments And Bewildering Criticisms That Teach But One Thing: There Are As Many Opinions As There Are Men.

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Thorough Knowledge

More From Helen Keller

There Is In The Blind As In The Seeing An Absolute Which Gives Truth To What We Know To Be True, Order To What Is Orderly, Beauty To The Beautiful, Touchableness To What Is Tangible.

One Can Never Consent To Creep When One Feels An Impulse To Soar.

A Good Education Is A Stepping-stone To Wealth.

Blindness Separates Us From Things But Deafness Separates Us From People.

Our Democracy Is But A Name. We Vote? What Does That Mean? It Means That We Choose Between Two Bodies Of Real, Though Not Avowed, Autocrats. We Choose Between Tweedledum And Tweedledee.

Of All The Senses, Sight Must Be The Most Delightful.

To Get Congress To Do Anything.

The Heresy Of One Age Becomes The Orthodoxy Of The Next.

Make The Most Of Every Sense; Glory In All The Facets Of Pleasure And Beauty Which The World Reveals To You...

There Is Plenty Of Courage Among Us For The Abstract, But Not For The Concrete.

So Long As I Confine My Activities To Social Service And The Blind, They Compliment Me Extravagantly, Calling Me 'arch Priestess Of The Sightless,' 'wonder Woman,' And A 'modern Miracle.' But When It Comes To A Discussion Of Poverty, And I Maintain That It Is The Result Of Wrong Economics-that The Industrial System Under Which We Live Is At The Root Of Much Of The Physical Deafness And Blindness In The World-that Is A Different Matter!

What We Have Once Enjoyed We Can Never Lose. All That We Love Deeply Becomes A Part Of Us.

The Greatest Tragedy To Befall A Person Is To Have Sight But Lack Vision.

Smell Is A Fallen Angel.

My Friends Have Made The Story Of My Life.

We Need Limitations And Temptations To Open Our Inner Selves, Dispel Our Ignorance, Tear Off Disguises, Throw Down Old Idols, And Destroy False Standards. Only By Such Rude Awakenings Can We Be Led To Dwell In A Place Where We Are Less Cramped, Less Hindered By The Ever-insistent External. Only Then Do We Discover A New Capacity And Appreciation Of Goodness And Beauty And Truth.

So Much Has Been Given Me I Have No Time To Ponder Over That Which Has Been Denied.

Famous Inspirational

I Have Made My Limitations Tools Of Learning And True Joy.

The Test Of All Beliefs Is Their Practical Effect In Life. If It Be True That Optimism Compels The World Forward, And Pessimism Retards It, Then It Is Dangerous To Propagate A Pessimistic Philosophy.

The Best And Most Beautiful Things In The World Cannot Be Seen Or Even Touched - They Must Be Felt With The Heart.

I Do Not Mean To Object To A Thorough Knowledge Of The Famous Works We Read. I Object Only To The Interminable Comments And Bewildering Criticisms That Teach But One Thing: There Are As Many Opinions As There Are Men.

Thorough Knowledge

While They Were Saying Among Themselves It Cannot Be Done, It Was Done.

The Most Important Day I Remember In All My Life Is The One On Which My Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, Came To Me

No Loss By Flood And Lightning, No Destruction Of Cities And Temples By The Hostile Forces Of Nature, Has Deprived Man Of So Many Noble Lives And Impulses As Those Which His Intolerance Has Destroyed.

The Welfare Of Each Is Bound Up In The Welfare Of All.

Happiness Cannot Come From Without. It Must Come From Within. It Is Not What We See And Touch Or That Which Others Do For Us Which Makes Us Happy; It Is That Which We Think And Feel And Do, First For The Other Fellow And Then For Ourselves.

I Find That Fact And Fancy Look Alike Across The Years That Link The Past With The Present.

God Doesn't Promise Security From Life's Storms But Security In Life's Storms. God Doesn't Always Call The Equipped, But He Will Always Equip The Called. In The Long Run, Avoiding Danger Is No Safer Than Outright Exposure. The Fearful Are Caught As Often As The Bold.

If You Look Toward The Sunshine, You Will Never See The Shadows.

Faith Is The Strength By Which A Shattered World Shall Emerge Into The Light.

True Teaching Cannot Be Learned From Text-books Any More Than A Surgeon Can Acquire His Skill By Reading About Surgery.

We Can Do Anything We Want To If We Stick To It Long Enough.

Optimism Is The Faith That Leads To Achievement. Nothing Can Be Done Without Hope And Confidence.

A Person Who Is Severely Impaired Never Knows His Hidden Sources Of Strength Until He Is Treated Like A Normal Human Being And Encouraged To Shape His Own Life.

Often We Look So Long At The Closed Door That We Do Not See The One That Has Been Opened For Us.

Once I Knew The Depth Where No Hope Was And Darkness Lay On The Face Of All Things. Then Love Came And Set My Soul Free.

A Well-educated Mind Will Always Have More Questions Than Answers.

For My Part, I Wish, With Mr. Howells, That The Literature Of The Past Might Be Purged Of All That Is Ugly And Barbarous In It, Although I Should Object As Much As Any One To Having These Great Works Weakened Or Falsified.

I Can See, And That Is Why I Can Be Happy, In What You Call The Dark, But Which To Me Is Golden. I Can See A God-made World, Not A Manmade World.

Optimism, Then, Is A Fact Within My Own Heart. But As I Look Out Upon Life, My Heart Meets No Contradiction. The Outward World Justifies My Inward Universe Of Good.

When We Complain Of Having To Do The Same Thing Over And Over, Let Us Remember That God Does Not Send New Trees, Strange Flowers And Different Grasses Every Year. When The Spring Winds Blow, They Blow In The Same Way. In The Same Places The Same Dear Blossoms Lift Up The Same Sweet Faces, Yet They Never Weary Us. When It Rains, It Rains As It Always Has. Even So Would The Same Tasks Which Fill Our Daily Lives Put On New Meanings If We Wrought Them In The Spirit Of Renewal From Within--a Spirit Of Growth And Beauty.

We Are Never Really Happy Until We Try To Brighten The Lives Of Others.

Lives Of Others

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.

Through My Handicaps, I Have Found My Self, My Work, My God.

What Could Be Worse Than Being Born Without Sight? Being Born With Sight And No Vision.

I Have Found Out That Though The Ways In Which I Can Make Myself Useful Are Few, Yet The Work Open To Me Is Endless.

Words Are The Mind's Wings, Are They Not?

We Differ, Blind And Seeing, One From Another, Not In Our Senses, But In The Use We Make Of Them, In The Imagination And Courage With Which We Seek Wisdom Beyond All Senses.

I Hung About The Dangerous Frontier Of "guess," Avoiding With Infinite Trouble To Myself And Others The Broad Valley Of Reason.

A Man Can't Make A Place For Himself In The Sun If He Keeps Taking Refuge Under The Family Tree.

Not The Senses I Have But What I Do With Them Is My Kingdom.

It Is A Terrible Thing To See And Have No Vision.

The Woman Who Works For A Dollar A Day Has As Much Right As Any Other Human Being To Say What The Conditions Of Her Work Should Be.

A Bend In The Road Is Not The End Of The Road…unless You Fail To Make The Turn.

When We Do The Best We Can, We Never Know What Miracles Await.

Independent Women

How Futile Are Words In The Ears Of Those Who Mourn.

There Is Much In The Bible Against Which Every Instinct Of My Being Rebels, So Much That I Regret The Necessity Which Has Compelled Me To Read It Through From Beginning To End. I Do Not Think That The Knowledge Which I Have Gained Of Its History And Sources Compensates Me For The Unpleasant Details It Has Forced Upon My Attention.

The Most Pathetic Person In The World Is Someone Who Has Sight, But Has No Vision.

People Often ... Have No Idea How Fair The Flower Is To The Touch, Nor Do They Appreciate Its Fragrance, Which Is The Soul Of The Flower.

When It Seems That Our Sorrow Is Too Great To Be Borne, Let Us Think Of The Great Family Of The Heavy-hearted Into Which Our Grief Has Given Us Entrance. And Inevitably, We Will Feel About Us Their Arms, Their Sympathy And Their Understanding.

The True Task Is To Unite And Organize All Workers...and It Is The Workers Themselves Who Must Secure Freedom For Themselves.

If I Am Happy In Spite Of My Deprivations, If My Happiness Is So Deep That It Is A Faith, So Thoughtful That It Becomes A Philosophy Of Life. If, In Short, I Am An Optimist, My Testimony To The Creed Of Optimism Is Worth Hearing.

The Joy Of Surmounting Obstacles Which Once Seemed Unremovable, And Pushing The Frontier Of Accomplishment Further — What Joy Is There Like Unto It?

We Still Have It In Our Power To Rise Above The Fears, Imagined And Real, And To Shoulder The Great Burdens Which Destiny Has Placed Upon Us, Not For Our Country Alone, But For The Benefit Of All The World. That Is The Only Destiny Worthy Of America.

Ideas Without Action Are Useless.

The Highest Result Of Education Is Tolerance. Long Ago Men Fought And Died For Their Faith; But It Took Ages To Teach Them The Other Kind Of Courage, - The Courage To Recognize The Faiths Of Their Brethren And Their Rights Of Conscience.

The Human Being Is Born With An Incurable Capacity For Making The Best Of Things.

Worse Than Being Blind Would Be To Be Able To See But Not Have Any Vision.

Tyranny Cannot Defeat The Power Of Ideas.

Fear: The Best Way Out Is Through.

Be Not Dismayed; In The Future Lies The Promised Land.

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.

When One Doors Closes, Another Door Opens.

The Hands Of Those I Meet Are Dumbly Eloquent To Me. The Touch Of Some Hands Is An Impertinence. I Have Met People So Empty Of Joy, That When I Clasped Their Frosty Finger-tips, It Seemed As If I Were Shaking Hands With A Northeast Storm.

It Is Hard To Interest Those Who Have Everything In Those Who Have Nothing.

Self-culture Has Been Loudly And Boastfully Proclaimed As Sufficient For All Our Ideals Of Perfection. But If We Listen To The Best Men And Women Everywhere ... They Will Say That 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.

Hold Out Your Hands To Feel The Luxury Of The Sunbeams.

The Infinite Wonders Of The Universe Are Revealed To Us In Exact Measure As We Are Capable Of Receiving Them. The Keenness Of Our Vision Depends Not On How Much We Can See, But On How Much We Feel.

I Look Upon The Whole World As My Fatherland, And Every War Has To Me The Horror Of A Family Feud.

The Best Things In Life Are Unseen, Thats Why We Close Our Eyes When We Kiss, Cry, And Dream

I Have Often Thought It Would Be A Blessing If Each Human Being Were Stricken Blind And Deaf For A Few Days During Their Early Adult Life. Darkness Would Make Them More Appreciative Of Sight; Silence Would Teach Them The Joys Of Sound.

Usually They Are Quick To Discover That I Cannot See Or Hear.... It Is Not Training But Love Which Impels Them To Break Their Silence About Me With The Thud Of A Tail Rippling Against My Chair On Gambols Round The Study, Or News Conveyed By Expressive Ear, Nose, And Paw. Often I Yearn To Give Them Speech, Their Motions Are So Eloquent With Things They Cannot Say.

In A Word, Literature Is My Utopia. Here I Am Not Disfranchised. No Barrier Of The Senses Shuts Me Out From The Sweet, Gracious Discourse Of My Book-friends. They Talk To Me Without Embarrassment Or Awkwardness. The Things I Have Learned And The Things I Have Been Taught Seem Of Ridiculously Little Importance Compared With Their "large Loves And Heavenly Charities.

Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

...our Enjoyment Of The Great Works Of Literature Depends More Upon The Depth Of Our Sympathy Than Upon Our Understanding.

What Really Counts In Life Is The Quiet Meeting Of Every Difficulty With The Determination To Get Out Of It All The Good There Is.

Next To A Leisurely Walk I Enjoy A Spin On My Tandem Bicycle. It Is Splendid To Feel The Wind Blowing In My Face And The Springy Motion Of My Iron Steed. The Rapid Rush Through The Air Gives Me A Delicious Sense Of Strength And Buoyancy, And The Exercise Makes My Pulse Dance And My Heart Sing.

Alone We Can Do So Little; Together We Can Do So Much.

Remember, No Effort That We Make To Attain Something Beautiful Is Ever Lost.

The Beginning Of My Life Was Simple And Much Like Every Other Little Life. I Came, I Saw, I Conquered, As The First Baby In The Family Always Does.

One Painful Duty Fulfilled Makes The Next Plainer And Easier.

Self Discipline

Personally I Do Not Believe In A National Agency Devoted Only To The Negro Blind Because In Spirit And Principle I Am Against All Segregation, And The Blind Already Have Difficulties Enough Without Being Cramped And Harassed By Social Barriers.

Every One Of Us Is Blind And Deaf Until Our Eyes Are Opened To Our Fellowmen, Until Our Ears Hear The Voice Of Humanity.

Smell Is A Potent Wizard That Transports You Across Thousands Of Miles And All The Years You Have Lived.

As The Eagle Was Killed By The Arrow Winged With His Own Feather, So The Hand Of The World Is Wounded By Its Own Skill.

The True Test Of A Character Is To Face Hard Conditions With The Determination To Make Them Better.

Oh, You Think The Darkness Is Your Ally, But You Merely Adopted The Dark. I Was Born In It. Molded By It.

If We Believe That The Sun And Moon Hang In The Sky For Our Delight, There Will Be Joy Upon The Hills And Gladness In The Fields.

When We Do The Best That We Can, We Never Know What Miracle Is Wrought In Our Life, Or In The Life Of Another.

Poverty Is The Fundamental Cause Of Most Of The Physical, Moral And Economic Ills Of Humanity.

Things Must Be Felt With The Heart.

Long Distance Relationship

Cut Off As I Am, It Is Inevitable That I Should Sometimes Feel Like A Shadow Walking In A Shadowy World. When This Happens I Ask To Be Taken To New York City. Always I Return Home Weary But I Have The Comforting Certainty That Mankind Is Real Flesh And I Myself Am Not A Dream.

My Share Of The Work May Be Limited, But The Fact That It Is Work Makes It Precious.

We Can Decide To Let Our Trials Crush Us, Or We Can Convert Them To New Forces Of Good.

The Best Preparedness Is The One That Disarms The Hostility Of Other Nations And Makes Friends Of Them.

What Induces A Child To Learn But His Delight In Knowing?

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.

If We Spend The Time We Waste In Sighing For The Perfect Golden Fruit In Fulfilling The Conditions Of Its Growth, Happiness Will Come, Must Come. It Is Guaranteed In The Very Laws Of The Universe. If It Involves Some Chastening And Renunciation, Well, The Fruit Will Be All The Sweeter For This Touch Of Holiness.

Your Success And Happiness Lie In You. External Conditions Are The Accidents Of Life, Its Outer Trappings. The Great, Enduring Realities Are Love Of Service. Joy Is The Holy Fire That Keeps Our Purpose Warm And Our Intelligence Aglow. Resolve To Keep Happy, And Your Joy And You Shall Form An Invincible Host Against Difficulty.

What I Am Looking For Is Not Out There, It Is In Me.

Silver Is Purified In Fire And So Are We. It Is In The Most Trying Times That Our Real Character Is Shaped And Revealed.

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.

Our Beloved Ones Have Not 'gone To A Far Country.' It Is Only The Veil Of Sense That Separates Them From Us, And Even That Veil Grows Thin When Our Thoughts Reach Out To Them.

When One Door Closes, Another One Opens, But Sometimes We Wait Too Long Looking At The Closed Door, And Never Realize That Another Door Has Been Opened.

The Worst Calamity: 'to Have Eyes And Fail To See.'

I, Who Have Never Heard A Sound, Tell You There Is No Silence, And I, Who Have Never Seen A Ray Of Light, Tell You There Is No Darkness.

It Is Better To Have No Sight Than It Is To Have No Vision.

No Pessimist Ever Discovered The Secrets Of The Stars.

When One Door Of Hapiness Closes, Another Opens.

Now, However, I See The Folly Of Attempting To Hitch One's Wagon To A Star With A Harness That Does Not Belong To It.

I, Who Cannot See, Find Hundreds Of Things To Interest Me Through Mere Touch. I Feel The Delicate Symmetry Of A Leaf. I Pass My Hands Lovingly About The Smooth Skin Of A Silver Birch, Or The Rough Shaggy Bark Of A Pine.

We Betray Ourselves Into Smallness When We Think The Little Choices Of Each Day Are Trivial.

It Is Curious To Observe What Different Ideals Of Happiness People Cherish, And In What Singular Places They Look For This Well-spring Of Their Life. Many Look For It In The Hoarding Of Riches, Some In The Pride Of Power, And Others In The Achievements Of Art And Literature; A Few Seek It In The Exploration Of Their Own Minds, Or In Search For Knowledge.

When One Door Of Happiness Closes, Another Opens; But Often We Look So Long In Disappointment And Bitterness At The Closed Door That We Do Not Expectantly Look For And Therefore See With Pleasure And Gratitude The One Which Has Been Opened For Us.

Happiness Does Not Come From Without, It Comes From Within

The Attempt To Suppress An Idea Has Always And Everywhere Proved A Failure.

My Friends Have Made The Story Of My Life. In A Thousand Ways They Have Turned My Limitations Into Beautiful Privileges.

Faith Is A Mockery If It Does Not Teach Us That We Can Build A More Complete And Beautiful World.

A Child Must Feel The Flush Of Victory And The Heart-sinking Of Disappointment Before He Takes With A Will To The Tasks Distasteful To Him And Resolves To Dance His Way Through A Dull Routine Of Textbooks.

I Do Not Want The Peace Which Passeth Understanding, I Want The Understanding Which Bringeth Peace.

If I Could Have Only One Of My Senses Then I Would Choose Hearing, Then I Wouldn't Feel So All Alone.

Christmas Day Is The Festival Of Optimism.

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.

My Optimism Is Grounded In Two Worlds, Myself And What Is About Me. I Demand That The World Be Good, And Lo, It Obeys. I Proclaim The World Good, And Facts Range Themselves To Prove My Proclamation Overwhelmingly True.

When One Comes To Think Of It, There Are No Such Things As Divine, Immutable, Or Inalienable Rights. Rights Are Things We Get When We Are Strong Enough To Make Good Our Claim On Them.

True Friends Never Apart Maybe In Distance But Never In Heart

Long Distance Relationship

The One Resolution, Which Was In My Mind Long Before It Took The Form Of A Resolution, Is The Key-note Of My Life. It Is This, Always To Regard As Mere Impertinences Of Fate The Handicaps Which Were Placed Upon My Life Almost At The Beginning. I Resolved That They Should Not Crush Or Dwarf My Soul, But Rather Be Made To Blossom, Like Aaron's Rod, With Flowers.

Many People Know So Little About What Is Beyond Their Short Range Of Experience. They Look Within Themselves - And Find Nothing! Therefore They Conclude That There Is Nothing Outside Themselves Either.

When Indeed Shall We Learn That We Are All Related One To The Other, That We Are All Members Of One Body?

Long Before I Learned To Do A Sum In Arithmetic Or Describe The Shape Of The Earth, Miss Sullivan Had Taught Me To Find Beauty In The Fragrant Woods, In Every Blade Of Grass, And In The Curves And Dimples Of My Baby Sister's Hand.

Every Child Has A Right To Be Well-born, Well-nurtured And Well-taught, And Only The Freedom Of Woman Can Guarantee Him This Right.

God Himself Is Not Secure, Having Given Man Dominion Over His Work.

Certainly I Believe That God Gave Us Life For Happiness, Not Misery. Humanity, I Am Sure, Will Never Be Made Lazy Or Indifferent By An Excess Of Happiness. 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. Happiness Should Be A Means Of Accomplishment, Like Health, Not An End In Itself.

The Continued Lynchings And Other Crimes Against Negroes, Whether In New England Or The South, And Unspeakable Political Exponents Of White Supremacy, According To All Recorded History, Augur Ill For America's Future.

I Believe In The Immortality Of The Soul Because I Have Within Me Immortal Longings.

No Nation Is Wise Enough To Rule Another.

My Life Has Been Happy Because I Have Had Wonderful Friends And Plenty Of Interesting Work To Do.

Wonderful Friends

Have You Ever Been At Sea In A Dense Fog, When It Seemed As If A Tangible White Darkness Shut You In, And The Great Ship, Tense And Anxious, Groped Her Way Toward The Shore With Plummet And Sounding-line, And You Waited With Beating Heart For Something To Happen? I Was Like That Ship Before My Education Began, Only I Was Without Compass Or Sounding-line, And Had No Way Of Knowing How Near The Harbour Was.

When You Lose Your Vision, You Lose Contact With Things. When You Lose Your Hearing, You Lose Contact With People.

The Simplest Way To Be Happy Is To Do Good.

You Make Me Happy

A Simple, Childlike Faith In A Divine Friend Solves All The Problems That Come To Us By Land Or Sea

Everything Has Its Wonders, Even Darkness And Silence, And I Learn, Whatever State I May Be In, Therein To Be Content.

All Truth Goes Through Three Stages. First It Is Ridiculed. Then It Is Violently Opposed. Finally, It Is Accepted As Self-evident. Facts Are Stubborn, And Refusal To Accept Them Does Not Avoid Their Inexorable Effects-the Tragic Consequences Are Now Upon Us

You Will Succeed If You Persevere; And You Will Find Joy In Overcoming Obstacles.

Blindness Separates People From Things; Deafness Separates People From People.

This Great Republic Is A Mockery Of Freedom As Long As You Are Doomed To Dig And Sweat To Earn A Miserable Living While The Masters Enjoy The Fruit Of Your Toil.

What A Blind Person Needs Is Not A Teacher But Another Self.

I Feel The Delightful, Velvety Texture Of A Flower, And Discover Its Remarkable Convolutions; And Something Of The Miracle Of Nature Is Revealed To Me.

There Is No Better Way To Thank God For Your Sight Than By Giving A Helping Hand To Someone In The Dark.

Militarism. . . Is The Chief Bulwark Of Capitalism. When It Is That Militarism Is Undermined, Capitalism Will Fail.

A Happy Life Consists Not In The Absence, But In The Mastery Of Hardships.

I Wonder What Becomes Of Lost Opportunities? Perhaps Our Guardian Angel Gathers Them Up As We Drop Them, And Will Give Them Back To Us In The Beautiful Sometime When We Have Grown Wiser, And Learned How To Use Them Rightly.

It Was My Teacher's Genius, Her Quick Sympathy, Her Loving Tact Which Made The First Years Of My Education So Beautiful. It Was Because She Seized The Right Moment To Impart Knowledge That Made It So Pleasant And Acceptable To Me.

What A Strange Life I Lead- A Kind Of Cinderella-life-half Glitter In Crystal Shoes, Half Mice And Cinders! But It Is A Wonderful Life All The Same.

We Can Drift Along With General Opinion And Tradition, Or We Can Throw Ourselves Upon The Guidance Of The Soul Within And Steer Courageously Toward Truth... We Have A Choice In Every Event And Every Limitation And....to Choose Is To Create.

For Years To Come The Debris Of A Convulsed World Will Beset Our Steps. It Will Require A Purpose Stronger Than Any Man And Worthy Of All Men To Calm And Inspirit Us. A Sane Society Whose Riches Are Happy Children, Men And Women, Beautiful With Peace And Creative Activity, Is Not Going To Be Ordained For Us. We Must Make It Ourselves.

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.

Knowledge Is Power." Rather, Knowledge Is Happiness, Because To Have Knowledge - Broad, Deep Knowledge - Is To Know True Ends From False, And Lofty Things From Low. To Know The Thoughts And Deeds That Have Marked Man's Progress Is To Feel The Great Heart-throbs Of Humanity Through The Centuries; And If One Does Not Feel In These Pulsations A Heavenward Striving, One Must Indeed Be Deaf To The Harmonies Of Life.

Even More Amazing Than The Wonders Of Nature Are The Powers Of The Spirit.

Wonder Of Nature

All The World Is Full Of Suffering. It Is Also Full Of Overcoming.

When All You Can Feel Are The Shadows, Turn Your Face Towards The Sun. There Is Always A Bright Side - Even If Only That It Is Not Worse...and It Can Always Be Worse

I Could Never Stay Long Enough On The Shore; The Tang Of The Untainted, Fresh, And Free Sea Air Was Like A Cool, Quieting Thought.

More Than At Any Other Time, When I Hold A Beloved Book In My Hand My Limitations Fall From Me, My Spirit Is Free.

Keep Your Face To The Sunshine And You Cannot See A Shadow.

Face Your Deficiencies And Acknowledge Them; But Do Not Let Them Master You. Let Them Teach You Patience, Sweetness, Insight.

It's Wonderful To Climb The Liquid Mountains Of The Sky. Behind Me And Before Me Is God And I Have No Fears.

I Am Conscious Of A Soul-sense That Lifts Me Above The Narrow, Cramping Circumstances Of My Life. My Physical Limitations Are Forgotten- My World Lies Upward, The Length And The Breadth And The Sweep Of The Heavens Are Mine!

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.

I Have Visited Sweatshops, Factories, And Crowded Slums. If I Could Not See It, I Could Smell It. The Foundation Of Society Is Laid Upon A Basis Of . . . Individualism, Conquest And Exploitation . . . A Social Order Such As This, Built Upon Such Wrong And Basic Principles, Is Bound To Retard The Development Of All. The Output Of A Cotton Mill Or A Coal Mine Is Considered Of Greater Importance Than The Production Of Healthy, Happy-hearted And Free Human Beings. We, The People, Are Not Free. Our Democracy Is But A Name.

One's Life Story Cannot Be Told With Complete Veracity. A True Autobiography Would Have To Be Written In States Of Mind, Emotions, Heartbeats, Smiles And Tears; Not In Months And Years, Or Physical Events. Life Is Marked Off On The Soul By Feelings, Not By Dates.

Never Bend Your Head. Always Hold It High. Look The World Straight In The Eye.

Defeat Is Simply A Signal To Press Onward.

Don't Give Me The Peace That Passeth Understanding, Give Me Understanding.

Use Your Eyes As If Tomorrow You Would Become Blind.

The Civilization Of A State Should Be Measured By The Amount Of Suffering It Prevents And The Degree Of Happiness It Makes Possible For Its Citizens.

The Inferiority Of Women Is Man-made.

Faith Reinvigorates The Will, Enriches The Affections, And Awakens A Sense Of Creativeness. Active Faith Knows No Fear, And It Is A Safeguard To Me Against Cynicism And Despair.

Doubts And Mistrust Are The Mere Panic Of Timid Imagination, Which The Steadfast Heart Will Conquer, And The Large Mind Transcend.

Toleration Is The Greatest Gift Of The Mind; It Requires The Same Effort Of The Brain That It Takes To Balance Oneself On A Bicycle.

The Marvelous Richness Of Human Experience Would Lose Something Of Rewarding Joy If There Were No Limitations To Overcome. The Hilltop Hour Would Not Be Half So Wonderful If There Were No Dark Valleys To Traverse.

What A Joy It Is To Feel The Soft, Springy Earth Under My Feet Once More, To Follow Grassy Roads That Lead To Ferny Brooks Where I Can Bathe My Fingers In A Cataract Of Rippling Notes, Or To Clamber Over A Stone Wall Into Green Fields That Tumble And Roll And Climb In Riotous Gladness!

Happiness Is The Final And Perfect Fruit Of Obedience To The Laws Of Life.

History Is A Record Of The Incessant Struggle Of Humanity Against Ignorance And Oppression.

Education Should Train The Child To Use His Brains, To Make For Himself A Place In The World And Maintain His Rights Even When It Seems That Society Would Shove Him Into The Scrap-heap.

Life Is An Adventure Or Nothing

Life Is An Adventure

Although The World Is Full Of Suffering, It Is Full Also Of The Overcoming 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.

Better To Be Blind And See With Your Heart, Than To Have Two Good Eyes And See Nothing.

I Have Found Life So Beautiful.

It Is Wonderful How Much Time Good People Spend Fighting The Devil. If They Would Only Expend The Same Amount Of Energy Loving Their Fellow Men, The Devil Would Die In His Own Tracks Of Ennui.

The Things You Do Today That You Don't Have To Do Will Determine Who, What, And Where You Will Be When It Is Too Late To Do Anything About The Things You Should Have Done.

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