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If I Regarded My Life From The Point Of View Of The Pessimist, I Should Be Undone. I Should Seek In Vain For The Light That Does Not Visit My Eyes And The Music That Does Not Ring In My Ears. I Should Beg Night And Day And Never Be Satisfied. I Should Sit Apart In Awful Solitude, A Prey To Fear And Despair. But Since I Consider It A Duty To Myself And To Others To Be Happy, I Escape A Misery Worse Than Any Physical Deprivation.

-Helen Keller

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If I Regarded My

Helen Keller

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If I Regarded My Life From The Point Of View Of The Pessimist, I Should Be Undone. I Should Seek In Vain For The Light That Does Not Visit My Eyes And The Music That Does Not Ring In My Ears. I Should Beg Night And Day And Never Be Satisfied. I Should Sit Apart In Awful Solitude, A Prey To Fear And Despair. But Since I Consider It A Duty To Myself And To Others To Be Happy, I Escape A Misery Worse Than Any Physical Deprivation.

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

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

To Get Congress To Do Anything.

The Only Real Blind Person At Christmas Time Is He Who Has Not Christmas In His Heart.

I Believe Humility Is A Virtue, But I Prefer Not To Use It Unless It Is Absolutely Necessary.

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The Highest Result Of Education Is Tolerance.

No Nation Is Wise Enough To Rule Another.

I Never Fight, Except Against Difficulties.

The Struggle Of Life Is One Of Our Greatest Blessings. It Makes Us Patient, Sensitive, And Godlike. It Teaches Us That Although The World Is Full Of Suffering, It Is Also Full Of The Overcoming Of It.

Strike Against War, For Without You No Battles Can Be Fought. Strike Against Manufacturing Shrapnel And Gas Bombs And All Other Tools Of Murder. Strike Against Preparedness That Means Death And Misery To Millions Of Human Beings. Be Not Dumb, Obedient Slaves In An Army Of Destruction. Be Heroes In An Army Of Construction.

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

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

Only In Quietness Do We Possess Our Own Minds And Discover The Resources Of The Inner Life.

I Will Not Just Live My Life. I Will Not Just Spend My Life. I Will Invest My Life.

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

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.

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.

To Keep On Trying In Spite Of Disappointment And Failure Is The Only Way To Keep Young And Brave. Failures Become Victories If They Make Us Wise-hearted.

Relationships Are Like Rome -- Difficult To Start Out, Incredible During The Prosperity Of The 'golden Age', And Unbearable During The Fall. Then, A New Kingdom Will Come Along And The Whole Process Will Repeat Itself Until You Come Across A Kingdom Like Egypt... That Thrives, And Continues To Flourish. This Kingdom Will Become Your Best Friend, Your Soul Mate, And Your Love.

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Instead Of Being Satisfied To Alleviate Suffering, We Shall Labor Hard And Continually To Prevent It.

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.

When All You Can Feel Are The Shadows, Turn Your Face Towards The Sun.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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Look The World Straight In The Eye.

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The Breakage And Agony Rending Us Today Will Be Our Salvation If They Drive Us By New Routes To Meet It. No One Can Proxy For Us A Masterpiece Of Loving Or Experience For Us The Rapture Of Art Or Launch For Us Book Ships Freighted With Sweet Bread To Strengthen Man. As Of Old We Must Be Our Own Seers, Musicians And Explorers, And To An Extent Vaster Than Ever Before.

Everybody Talks, Nobody Listens. Good Listeners Are As Rare As White Crows.

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

Life Is A Succession Of Lessons Which Must Be Lived To Be Understood.

The Country Is Governed For The Richest, For The Corporations, The Bankers, The Land Speculators, And For The Exploiters Of Labor.

The Million Little Things That Drop Into Your Hands, The Small Opportunities Each Day Brings, He Leaves Us Free To Use Or Abuse, And Goes Unchanging Along His Silent Way

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

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Toleration Is The Greatest Gift Of The Mind.

The Few Own The Many Because They Possess The Means Of Livelihood Of All ... The Country Is Governed For The Richest, For The Corporations, The Bankers, The Land Speculators, And For The Exploiters Of Labor. The Majority Of Mankind Are Working People. So Long As Their Fair Demands - The Ownership And Control Of Their Livelihoods - Are Set At Naught, We Can Have Neither Men's Rights Nor Women's Rights. The Majority Of Mankind Is Ground Down By Industrial Oppression In Order That The Small Remnant May Live In Ease.

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.

It Has Been Said That Life Has Treated Me Harshly; And Sometimes I Have Complained In My Heart Because Many Pleasures Of Human Experience Have Been Withheld From Me...if Much Has Been Denied Me, Much, Very Much, Has Been Given Me.

I Found That Of The Senses, The Eye Is The Most Superficial, The Ear The Most Arrogant, Smell The Most Voluptuous, Taste The Most Superstitious And Fickle, Touch The Most Profound And The Most Philosophical.

I Will Eat Grandfather For Dinner.

It Gives Me A Deep Comforting Sense That Things Seen Are Temporal And Things Unseen Are Eternal.

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

I Have Found Life So Beautiful.

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

I Have Walked With People Whose Eyes Are Full Of Light But Who See Nothing In Sea Or Sky, Nothing In City Streets, Nothing In Books. It Were Far Better To Sail Forever In The Night Of Blindness With Sense, And Feeling, And Mind, Than To Be Content With The Mere Act Of Seeing. The Only Lightless Dark Is The Night Of Darkness In Ignorance And Insensibility.

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

Every Modern War Has Had Its Roots In Exploitation.

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.

We Cannot Freely And Wisely Choose The Right Way For Ourselves Unless We Know Both Good And Evil.

The Danger Of Having The Constitution Twisted And Misconstrued To Support Vested Interests And Prejudices Must Be Guarded Against If American Democracy Is To Maintain A Progressive Character.

I Grow More And More Suspicious Of The Political Powers That Take Men Away From Their Work And Set Them Shooting One Another.

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.

The Greatest Tragedy In Life Is People Who Have Sight But No Vision.

I Am Thankful That In A Troubled World No Calamity Can Prevent The Return Of Spring.

Believe, When You Are Most Unhappy, That There Is Something For You To Do In The World. So Long As You Can Sweeten Another's Pain, Life Is Not In Vain.

Hope Sees The Invisible, Feels The Intangible, And Achieves The Impossible.

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.

With Every Friend I Love Who Has Been Taken Into The Brown Bosom Of The Earth A Part Of Me Has Been Buried There; But Their Contribution To My Being Of Happiness, Strength And Understanding Remains To Sustain Me In An Altered World.

I Am Beginning To Suspect All Elaborate And Special Systems Of Education. They Seem To Me To Be Built Up On The Supposition That Every Child Is A Kind Of Idiot Who Must Be Taught To Think. Whereas, If The Child Is Left To Himself, He Will Think More And Better, If Less Showily.

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.

There Will Never Be Another Now - I'll Make The Most Of Today. There Will Never Be Another Me - I'll Make The Most Of Myself.

How Spiritually Blind Are Men That They Fail To See That We Are Bound Together. We Rise Or Fall Together; We Are Dwarfed Or Godlike, Free Or Chained, Together.

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.

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

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

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.

Be Of Good Cheer. Do Not Think Of Today's Failures, But Of The Success That May Come Tomorrow. You Have Set Yourselves A Difficult Task, But You Will Succeed If You Persevere, And You Will Find A Joy In Overcoming Obstacles... Remember, No Effort That We Make To Attain Something Beautiful Is Ever Lost.

Thus I Came Up Out Of Egypt And Stood Before Sinai, And A Power Divine Touched My Spirit And Gave It Sight, So That I Beheld Many Wonders. And From The Sacred Mountain I Heard A Voice Which Said, ‘knowledge Is Love And Light And Vision.

Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

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.

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.

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.

The Worst Thing Is To Be Born Sighted But To Lack Vision.

There's Only One Story, The Story Of Your Life.

World Peace Will Never Come Until The Passion Of Supremacy Is Combated.

Children Who Hear Acquire Language Without Any Particular Effort; The Words That Fall From Others' Lips They Catch On The Wing, As It Were, Delightedly, While The Little Deaf Child Must Trap Them By A Slow And Often Painful Process. But Whatever The Process, The Result Is Wonderful. Gradually From Naming An Object We Advance Step By Step Until We Have Traversed The Vast Distance Between Our First Stammered Syllable And The Sweep Of Thought In A Line Of Shakespeare.

We The Living, Should Not Think Of The Dead As Lonely Because If They Could Speak To Us, They Would Say: "do Not Weep For Me, Earth Was Not My True Country, I Was An Alien There: I Am At Home Where Everyone Comes."

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