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If We Make Up Our Minds That This Is A Drab And Purposeless Universe, It Will Be That, And Nothing Else. On The Other Hand, If We Believe That The Earth Is Ours, And That The Sun And Moon Hang In The Sky For Our Delight, There Will Be Joy Upon The Hills And Gladness In The Fields Because The Artist In Our Souls Glorifies Creation. Surely, It Gives Dignity To Life To Believe That We Are Born Into This World For Noble Ends, And That We Have A Higher Destiny Than Can Be Accomplished Within The Narrow Limits Of This Physical Life.

-Helen Keller

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If We Make Up

Helen Keller

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If We Make Up Our Minds That This Is A Drab And Purposeless Universe, It Will Be That, And Nothing Else. On The Other Hand, If We Believe That The Earth Is Ours, And That The Sun And Moon Hang In The Sky For Our Delight, There Will Be Joy Upon The Hills And Gladness In The Fields Because The Artist In Our Souls Glorifies Creation. Surely, It Gives Dignity To Life To Believe That We Are Born Into This World For Noble Ends, And That We Have A Higher Destiny Than Can Be Accomplished Within The Narrow Limits Of This Physical Life.

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If The Blind Put Their Hands In God's, They Find Their Way More Surely Than Those Who See But Have Not Faith Or Purpose.

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.

Reality Even When It Is Sad Is Better Than Illusions. Illusions Are At The Mercy Of Any Winds That Blow. Real Happiness Must Come From Within, From A Fixed Purpose And Faith In One's Fellow Men.

Life Is Either A Great Adventure Or Nothing.

Death Is No More Than Passing From One Room Into Another.

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.

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

People Are Too Prone To Think That The Actual Is The Limit Of Possibility. They Believe That All That Has Been Done Is All That Can Be Done.

What If In My Waking Hours A Sound Should Ring Through The Silent Halls Of Hearing? ... Would The Bow And String Tension Of Life Snap? Would The Heart Over Weighted With Sudden Joy Stop Beating For Very Excess Of Happiness?

I Have Often Been Asked, Do Not People Bore You? I Do Not Understand Quite What That Means. I Suppose The Calls Of The Stupid And Curious, Especially Of Newspaper Reporters, Are Always Inopportune. 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; The Hypocrisy In Both Cases Is Equally Exasperating.

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.

If I Write What My Soul Thinks It Will Be Visible, And The Words Will Be Its Body.

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

I Never Fight, Except Against Difficulties.

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.

The Worst Thing In The World Is Not To Be Born Blind, But To Be Born With Sight, And Yet Have No Vision.

The Test Of A Democracy Is Not The Magnificence Of Buildings Or The Speed Of Automobiles Or The Efficiency Of Air Transportation, But Rather The Care Given To The Welfare Of All The People.

I Have Never Believed That My Limitations Were In Any Sense Punishments Or Accidents. If I Had Held Such A View, I Could Never Have Expected The Strength To Overcome Them.

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

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

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.

Once I Knew Only Darkness And Stillness... My Life Was Without Past Or Future... But A Little Word From The Fingers Of Another Fell Into My Hand That Clutched At Emptiness, And My Heart Leaped To The Rapture Of Living.

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

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

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.

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.

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

That The Sky Is Brighter Than The Earth Means Little Unless The Earth Itself Is Appreciated And Enjoyed. Its Beauty Loved Gives The Right To Aspire To The Radiance Of The Sunrise And Sunset.

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

A Smile Goes A Long Way, But You Must First Start It On Its Journey.

During The First Nineteen Months Of My Life I Had Caught Glimpses Of Broad, Green Fields, A Luminous Sky, Trees And Flowers Which The Darkness That Followed Could Not Wholly Blot Out. If We Have Once Seen, "the Day Is Ours, And What The Day Has Shown."

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. Others There Are Whose Hands Have Sunbeams In Them, So That Their Grasp Warms My Heart. It May Be Only The Clinging Touch Of A Child's Hand; But There Is As Much Potential Sunshine In It For Me As There Is In A Loving Glance For Others. A Hearty Handshake Or A Friendly Letter Gives Me Genuine Pleasure.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Best Educated Human Being Is The One Who Understands Most About The Life In Which He Is Placed.

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

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.

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.

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

What Can Rulers, Nobility And All The Lords Of The Earth Say To Justify The Horrible Killing And Maiming Of Twenty Or Thirty Million Valuable Men Who A Short While Ago Ploughed, Dug, Wove, Built, Guided The Traffic Of The World, Took Their Pleasure, Loved Their Fellows, Cherished Their Families, And Feared Naught?

Joy Is The Holy Fire That Keeps Our Purpose Warm And Our Intelligence Aglow.

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.

Life Is To Be Lived As A Magnificent Adventure, Or Not At All.

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

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

Surely There Is No Road Of Effort So Steep But A Loving Deed May Soften Its Hardshness.

I Have Found Life So Beautiful.

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.

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

I Prefer To Stroll Which Has A Buddy At Nighttime, Than By Itself Inside The Light.

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.

It Is With A Kind Of Fear That I Begin To Write The History Of My Life.

Story Of My Life

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

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

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

Making A Mistake Is Falling Down; Failure Is Not Getting Up Again.

Making Mistakes

We Could Never Learn To Be Brave And Patient, If There Were Only Joy In The World.

Your Success And Happiness Lie In You. External Conditions Are The Accidents Of Life, Its Outer Trappings.

There Is Beauty In Everything, Even In Silence And Darkness.

I Do Not Remember A Time Since I Have Been Capable Of Loving Books That I Have Not Loved Shakespeare.

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.

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.

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.

I Have Depended On Books Not Only For Pleasure And For The Wisdom They Bring To All Who Read, But Also For That Knowledge Which Comes To Others Through Their Eyes And Their Ears.

Great Poetry Needs No Interpreter Other Than A Responsive Heart.

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

Good Friends Walk In When The Old Ones Walk Out.

What Is The Use Of Such Terrible Diligence As Many Tire Themselves Out With, If They Always Postpone Their Exchange Of Smiles With Beauty And Joy To Cling To Irksome Duties And Relations?

Literature Is My Utopia

Change May Be The Vitalizing Wind Blowing Through The House Of Life, But It Is Not An Abiding Force. We Need Permanent Things To Soak Peace Into Us As Well As Progress - The Beauty Of The Earth, Seedtime And Harvest, The Smiles Of Lovers, The Joy Of The Young In Being Alive, Pride In Craftsmanship. Why, Oh Why Must We Let Ourselves Forget These Lasting Treasures In An Age Of Consuming Ambition, Speed Madness And Accumulated Goods That Leave Us No Chance To Live? If We Cannot Be Contented With A Little No Wealth Will Ever Satisfy Us.

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

Ideas Without Action Are Useless.

The Hilltop Hour Would Not Be Half So Wonderful If There Were No Dark Valleys To Traverse.

Serious Harm, I Am Afraid, Has Been Wrought To Our Generation By Fostering The Idea That They Would Live Secure In A Permanent Order Of Things.

He Who Marries The Spirit Of The Age Soon Becomes A Widower.

I Can See In What You Call The Dark, But Which To Me Is Golden.

Happiness Calls Out Responsive Gladness In Others. There Is Enough Sadness In The World Without Yours ... Never Doubt The Excellence And Permanence Of What Is Yet To Be. Join The Great Company Of Those Who Make The Barren Places Of Life Fruitful With Kindness.

When One Doors Closes, Another Door Opens.

Once It Was Necessary That The People Should Multiply And Be Fruitful If The Race Was To Survive. But Now To Preserve The Race It Is Necessary That People Hold Back The Power Of Propagation.

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.

Many Of Us Delude Ourselves With The Thought That If We Could Stand In The Lot Of Our More Fortunate Neighbor, We Could Live Better, Happier And More Useful Lives. ... It Is My Experience That Unless We Can Succeed In Our Present Position, We Could Not Succeed In Any Other.

Smells Are The Fallen Angels Of The Senses.

The Most Beautiful World Is Always Entered Through Imagination.

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.

Each Day Comes To Me With Both Hands Full Of Possibilities.

Certainly It Is One Of Our Sweetest Experiences That When We Are Touched By Some Noble Affection Or Pure Joy, We Remember The Dead Most Tenderly, And Feel More Powerfully Drawn To Them.

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.

Few Pleasures There Are Indeed Without An Aftertouch Of Pain, But That Is The Preservation Which Keeps Them Sweet.

The Living Word Awakened My Soul, Gave It Light, Hope, Joy, Set It Free!

I Think The Degree Of A Nation's Civilisation May Be Measured By The Degree Of Enlightenment Of Its Women.

He Who Is Content With What Has Been Done Is An Obstacle In The Path Of Progress.

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

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

I, For One, Love Strength, Daring, Fortitude. I Do Not Want People To Kill The Fight In Them; I Want Them To Fight For Right Things.

Life Is Short And Unpredictable. Eat The Dessert First!

Inspirational Life

Literature Is My Utopia. Here I Am Not Disenfranchised. 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.

No Nation Is Wise Enough To Rule Another.

Friends Create The World Anew Each Day. Without Their Loving Care, Courage Would Not Suffice To Keep Heartsstrong For Life.

The Most Important Day I Remember In All My Life Is The One On Which My Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, Came To Me. I Am Filled With Wonder When I Consider The Immeasurable Contrasts Between The Two Lives Which It Connects. It Was The Third Of March, 1887, Three Months Before I Was Seven Years Old.

The Wise Fools Who Sit In The High Places Of Justice Fail To See That In Revolutionary Times Vital Issues Are Settled Not By Statutes, Decrees And Authorities, But In Spite If Them.

The Highest Thinkers Of The Ages, The Seers Of The Tribes And The Nations, Have Been Optimists.

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.

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

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

Wonderful Friends

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Happiness Does Not Come From Without, It Comes From Within

I Regard Philanthropy As A Tragic Apology For Wrong Conditions Under Which Human Beings Live.

I Am Only One, But Still I Am One. I Cannot Do Everything, But Still I Can Do Something; And Because I Cannot Do Everything, I Will Not Refuse To Do The Something That I Can Do.

Burn Brightly Without Burning Out. Throw Your Heart Over The Fense And The Rest Will Follow. Keep Your Face To The Sunshine And You Wont See The Shadows

Positive Thinking

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

Christmas Day Is The Festival Of Optimism.

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

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

It Is For Us To Pray Not For Tasks Equal To Our Powers, But For Powers Equal To Our Tasks, To Go Forward With A Great Desire Forever Beating At The Door Of Our Hearts As We Travel Toward Our Distant Goal.

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

We Bereaved Are Not Alone. We Belong To The Largest Company In All The World--the Company Of Those Who Have Known Suffering.

Losing A Loved One

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.

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

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

The Heart Of A Friend Gives Out Sufficient Light For Us In The Dark To Rise By.

It Is Not Possible For Civilization To Flow Backwards While There Is Youth In The World. Youth May Be Headstrong, But It Will Advance It Allotted Length.

Our Worst Foes Are Not Belligerent Circumstances, But Wavering Spirits.

To Be Blind Is Bad, But Worse Is To Have Eyes And Not See.

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

Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

When One Reads Hurriedly And Nervously, Having In Mind Written Tests And Examinations, One's Brain Becomes Encumbered With A Lot Of Bric-a-brac For Which There Seems To Be Little Use.

We, The People, Are Not Free. Our Democracy Is But A Name. We Vote? What Does That Mean? It Means We Choose Between Tweedledee And Tweedledum. We Elect Expensive Masters To Do Our Work For Us, And Then Blame Them Because They Work For Themselves And For Their Class.

The Best Christmas Gift Of All Is The Presence Of A Happy Family All Wrapped Up With One Another. Jesus Is The Reason For The Season! From A Little Spark May Burst A Mighty Flame. The Only Blind Person At Christmastime Is He Who Has Not Christmas In His Heart.

Character Cannot Be Developed In Ease And Quiet.

Masculine Exhalations Are, As A Rule, Stronger, More Vivid,more Widely Differentiated Than Those Of Women. In The Odor Of Young Men There Is Something Elemental, As Of Fire, Storm, And Salt Sea. It Pulsates With Buoyancy And Desire. It Suggests All The Things Strong And Beautiful And Joyous And Gives Me A Sense Of Physical Happiness.

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 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.

Love Is Like A Beautiful Flower Which I May Not Touch, But Whose Fragrance Makes The Garden A Place Of Delight Just The Same.

No Smile Is As Beautiful As The One That Struggles Through Tears.

Gullibility Is The Key To All Adventures. The Greenhorn Is The Ultimate Victor In Everything; It Is He Who Gets The Most Out Of Life.

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

While The Right Friends Are Near Us, We Feel That All Is Well. Our Everyday Life Blossoms Suddenly Into Bright Possibilities.

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.

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

Wonder Of Nature

I Believe There Are Angels Among Us, Sent Down To Us From Somewhere Up Above. They Come To You And Me In Our Darkest Hours, To Show Us How To Live, To Teach Us How To Give, To Guide Us With A Light Of Love.

Face Your Deficiencies And Acknowledge Them; But Do Not Let Them Master You. Let Them Teach You Patience, Sweetness, Insight. True Education Combines Intellect, Beauty, Goodness, And The Greatest Of These Is Goodness. When We Do The Best That We Can, We Never Know What Miracle Is Wrought In Our Life, Or In The Life Of Another.

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. To What Good I Open The Doors Of My Being, And Jealously Shut Them Against What Is Bad. Such Is The Force Of This Beautiful And Willful Conviction, It Carries Itself In The Face Of All Opposition. I Am Never Discouraged By Absence Of Good. I Never Can Be Argued Into Hopelessness. Doubt And Mistrust Are The Mere Panic Of Timid Imagination, Which The Steadfast Heart Will Conquer, And The Large Mind Transcend.

College Isn't The Place To Go For Ideas.

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

The Mystery Of Language Was Revealed To Me. I Knew Then That 'w-a-t-e-r' Meant The Wonderful Cool Something That Was Flowing Over My Hand. That Living Word Awakened My Soul, Gave It Light, Joy, Set It Free.

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

I Am Just As Deaf As I Am Blind. The Problems Of Deafness Are Deeper And More Complex, If Not More Important Than Those Of Blindness. Deafness Is A Much Worse Misfortune. For It Means The Loss Of The Most Vital Stimulus- The Sound Of The Voice That Brings Language, Sets Thoughts Astir, And Keeps Us In The Intellectual Company Of Man.

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.

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.

Instead Of Comparing Our Lot With That Of Those Who Are More Fortunate Than We Are, We Should Compare It With The Lot Of The Great Majority Of Our Fellow Men. It Then Appears That We Are Among The Privileged.

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

Be Not Dumb, Obedient Slaves In An Army Of Destruction. Be Heroes In An Army Of Construction.

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.

One Painful Duty Fulfilled Makes The Next Plainer And Easier.

Self Discipline

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

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

Death Is No More Than Passing From One Room Into Another. But There's A Difference For Me, You Know. Because In That Other Room I Shall Be Able To See.

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

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

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

Be Heroes In An Army Of Construction.

Self-pity Is Our Worst Enemy And If We Yield To It, We Can Never Do Anything Wise In This World.

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

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

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.

Toleration Is The Greatest Gift Of The Mind.

Touch Each Object As If Tomorrow You Would Never Be Able To Feel Anything Again.

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.

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.

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

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

The Saddest Thing In Life Is People With Sight, But Without Vision.

Walking With A Friend In The Dark Is Better Than Walking Alone In The Light.

I Fall, I Stand Still... I Trudge On. I Gain A Little... I Get More Eager And Climb Higher And Begin To See The Widening Horizon. Every Struggle Is A Victory.

The Heresy Of One Age Becomes The Orthodoxy Of The Next. Mere Tolerance Has Given Place To A Sentiment Of Brotherhood Between Sincere Men Of All Denominations.

People Do Not Like To Think. If One Thinks, One Must Reach Conclusions. Conclusions Are Not Always Pleasant.

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

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

Happiness Is A State Of Mind, And Depends Very Little On Outward Circumstances.

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.

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

We Should Respect All People.

Commercial Concerns Have Expanded From Family Business To Corporate Wealth Which Is Self-perpetuating And Which Enlightened Statesmen And Economists Now Dread As The Most Potent Oligarchy Yet Produced.

I Learned That It Is Possible For Us To Create Light, Sound And Order Within Us No Matter What Calamity Befall Us In The Outer World.

One Should Never Count The Years -- One Should Instead Count One's Interests. I Have Kept Young Trying Never To Lose My Childhood Sense Of Wonderment. I'm Glad I Still Have A Vivid Curiosity About The World I Live In.

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

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

I Can Not Do Everything, But I Can Do Something. I Must Not Fail To Do The Something That I Can Do.

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.

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

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!

Truly I Have Looked In 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.

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