Background Image

...

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.

-Helen Keller

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

It Has Been Said

Helen Keller

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Helen Keller

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.

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

Where Once Stood The Steadfast Pines, Great, Beautiful, Sweet, My Hand Touched Raw, Moist Stumps. All About Lay Broken Branches, Like The Antlers Of Stricken Deer. The Fragrant, Piled-up Sawdust Swirled And Tumbled About Me. An Unreasoning Resentment Flashed Through Me At The Ruthless Destruction Of The Beauty That I Love.

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

Until The Great Mass Of The People Shall Be Filled With The Sense Of Responsibility For Each Other's Welfare, Social Justice Can Never Be Attained.

Strike Against War, For Without You No Battles Can Be Fought.

The Fearful Are Caught As Often As The Bold.

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

We Must Not Creep Along When Our Souls Cry Out For Us To Soar!

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

For Three Things I Thank God Every Day Of My Life: Thanks That He Has Vouchsafed Me Knowledge Of His Works; Deep Thanks That He Has Set In My Darkness The Lamp Of Faith; Deep, Deepest Thanks That I Have Another Life To Look Forward To--a Life Joyous With Light And Flowers And Heavenly Song.

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.

Blindness Is An Unfortunate Handicap But True Vision Does Not Require The Eyes.

Life Is Either A Great Adventure Or Nothing.

The Only Thing Worse Than Being Blind Is Having Sight But No Vision.

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

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

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.

One Painful Duty Fulfilled Makes The Next Plainer And Easier.

Self Discipline

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

Life Is Short And Unpredictable. Eat The Dessert First!

Inspirational Life

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.

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

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.

College Isn't The Place To Go For Ideas.

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

Look The World Straight In The Eye.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Character Cannot Be Developed In Ease And Quiet.

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

Knowledge Is Love And Light And Vision.

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

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.

Knowledge Is Happiness, Because To Have Knowledge - Broad, Deep Knowledge - Is To Know True Ends From False, And Lofty Things From Low.

Knowledge And Power

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

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?

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

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.

What Do I Consider A Teacher Should Be? One Who Breathes Life Into Knowledge So That It Takes New Form In Progress And Civilization.

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.

Christmas Day Is The Festival Of Optimism.

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.

Things Must Be Felt With The Heart.

Long Distance Relationship

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?

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.

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. Once I Fretted And Beat Myself Against The Wall That Shut Me In. My Life Was Without A Past Or Future, And Death A Consummation Devoutly To Be Wished. But A Little Word From The Fingers Of Another Fell Into My Hands That Clutched At Emptiness, And My Heart Leaped Up With The Rapture Of Living. I Do Not Know The Meaning Of The Darkness, But I Have Learned The Overcoming Of 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.

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

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.

To Keep Our Faces Toward Chance And Behave Like Free Spirits In The Presence Of Fate Is Strength Undefeatable.

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

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 Cannot But Say A Word And Look My Disapproval When I Hear That My Country Is Spending Millions For War And War Engines-more, I Have Heard, Than Twice As Much As The Entire Public School System Costs The Nation.

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.

Trying To Write Is Very Much Like Trying To Put A Chinese Puzzle Together. We Have A Pattern In Mind Which We Wish To Work Out In Words; But The Words Will Not Fit The Spaces, Or, If They Do, They Will Not Match The Design.

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

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.

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

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

The Greatest Tragedy In Life Is People Who Have Sight But 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.

I Do Not Like The World As It Is; So I Am Trying To Make It A Little More As I Want It.

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.

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

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.

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

One Must Envision The Higher Life And Behave As If It Were A Fact Before It Can Unfold.

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.

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.

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

Unless We Form The Habit Of Going To The Bible In Bright Moments As Well As In Trouble, We Cannot Fully Respond To Its Consolations Because We Lack Equilibrium Between Light And Darkness.

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

I Cannot Remember How I Felt When The Light Went Out Of My Eyes. I Suppose I Felt It Was Always Night And Perhaps I Wondered Why The Day Did Not Come.

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.

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.

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

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

Use Your Eyes As If Tomorrow You Would Be Stricken Blind. Hear The Music Of Voices, The Song Of Birds, The Mighty Strains Of An Orchestra As If You Would Be Stricken Deaf Tomorrow . . . Smell The Perfume Of Flowers, Taste With Relish Each Morsel As If Tomorrow You Could Never Smell And Taste Again. Glory In All The Facts Of Pleasure And Beauty Which The World Reveals To You.

When I Recollect The Treasure Of Friendship That Has Been Bestowed Upon Me I Withdraw All Charges Against Life. If Much Has Been Denied Me, Much, Very Much Has Been Given. So Long As The Memory Of Certain Beloved Friends Lives In My Heart I Shall Say That Life Is Good.

We Should Respect All People.

Fear: The Best Way Out Is Through.

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

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

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

Sometimes, It Is True, A Sense Of Isolation Enfolds Me Like A Cold Mist As I Sit Alone And Wait At Life’s Shut Gate. Beyond There Is Light, And Music, And Sweet Companionship; But I May Not Enter. Fate, Silent, Pitiless, Bars The Way…silence Sits Immense Upon My Soul. Then Comes Hope With A Smile And Whispers, ‘there Is Joy Is 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We Should Not Think Of Conversion As The Acceptance Of A Particular Creed, But As A Change Of Heart.

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!

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

If It Is True That The Violin Is The Most Perfect Of Musical Instruments, Then Greek Is The Violin Of Human Thought.

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.

Observers In The Full Enjoyment Of Their Bodily Senses Pity Me, But It Is Because They Do Not See The Golden Chamber In My Life Where I Dwell Delighted; For, Dark As My Path May Seem To Them, I Carry A Magic Light In My Heart. Faith, The Spiritual Strong Searchlight, Illumines The Way, And Although Sinister Doubts Lurk In The Shadow, I Walk Unafraid Towards The Enchanted Wood Where The Foliage Is Always Green, Where Joy Abides, Where Nightingales Nest And Sing, And Where Life And Death Are One In The Presence Of The Lord.

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

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

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.

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.

Museums And Art Stores Are Also Sources Of Pleasure And Inspiration. Doubtless It Will Seem Strange To Many That The Hand Unaided By Sight Can Feel Action, Sentiment, Beauty In The Cold Marble; And Yet It Is True That I Derive Genuine Pleasure From Touching Great Works Of Art. As My Finger Tips Trace Line And Curve, They Discover The Thought And Emotion Which The Artist Has Portrayed.

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

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.

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

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

Smell Is A Fallen Angel.

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

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.

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

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

Your Success And Happiness Lies In You. Resolve To Keep Happy, And Your Joy And You Shall Form An Invincible Host Against Difficulties.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

In Times Of Danger Large Groups Rise To The Highest Pitch Of Enthusiasm, Courage And Sacrifice . . . Mankind Will Be Refashioned And History Rewritten When This Law Is Understood And Obeyed.

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

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

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

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.

There Is A Dangerous Optimism Of Ignorance And Indifference.

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

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!

The Chief Handicap Of The Blind Is Not Blindness, But The Attitude Of Seeing People Towards Them.

Joy Is A Spiritual Element That Gives Vicissitudes Unity And Significance.

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.

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.

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

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

Be Happy. Talk Happiness.

So Long As You Can Sweeten Another's Pain, Life Is Not In Vain.

There Is No King Who Has Not Had A Slave Among His Ancestors, And No Slave Who Has Not Had A King Among His.

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.

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.

I Am Not A Perfect Being. . . . I Have More Faults Than I Know What To Do With. I Have A Naughty Temper. I Am Stubborn, Impatient Of Hindrances And Of Stupidity. I Have Not In The Truest Sense A Christian Spirit. I Am Naturally A Fighter. I Am Lazy. I Put Off Till Tomorrow What I Might Better Do Today. I Do Not Feel That I Have Been Compensated For The Two Senses I Lack. I Have Worked Hard For All The Senses I Have Got, And Always I Beg For More.

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

I Am A Child Of My Generation, And I Rejoice That I Live In Such Splendidly Disturbing Times.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Now I Feel As If I Should Succeed In Doing Something In Mathematics, Although I Cannot See Why It Is So Very Important. . . The Knowledge Doesn't Make Life Any Sweeter Or Happier, Does It?

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.

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

Making Mistakes

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.

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

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

I Know No Study That Will Take You Nearer The Way To Happiness Than The Study Of Nature - And I Include In The Study Of Nature Not Only Things And Their Forces, But Also Mankind And Their Ways, And The Moulding Of The Affections And The Will Into An Earnest Desire Not Only To Be Happy, But To Create Happiness.

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.

Be Heroes In An Army Of Construction.

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

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.

Health In All Lands Is Among The Indispensable Guarantees Of Human Progress.

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

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

Story Of My Life

There Is No Blindness More Insidious, More Fatal That This Race For Profit.

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

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

Ideas Without Action Are Useless.

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.

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.

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.

Avoiding Danger Is No Safer In The Long Run Than Exposure.

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.

Happiness Does Not Come From Without, It Comes From Within

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.

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.

I Believe War Is The Inevitable Fruit Of Our Economic System.

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.

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.

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

They Took Away What Should Have Been My Eyes (but I Remembered Milton's Paradise). They Took Away What Should Have Been My Ears, (beethoven Came And Wiped Away My Tears) They Took Away What Should Have Been My Tongue, (but I Had Talked With God When I Was Young) He Would Not Let Them Take Away My Soul, Possessing That I Still Possess The Whole.

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

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.

As Selfishness And Complaint Pervert The Mind, So Love With Its Joy Clears And Sharpens The Vision.

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

The Way Forward Is Simple - Just Follow Christ!

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

Wonder Of Nature

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

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

Poetry Is The Gate Through Which I Enter The Land Of Enchantment. Once Inside The Flaming Wall, My Limitations Fall From Me, And My Spirit Is Free.

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

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

It Need Not Discourage Us If We Are Full Of Doubts. Healthy Questions Keep Faith Dynamic. In Fact, Unless We Start With Doubts We Cannot Have A Deep-rooted Faith. One Who Believes Lightly And Unthinkingly Has Not Much Of A Belief. One Who Has A Faith Which Is Not To Be Shaken Has Won It Through Blood And Tears-has Worked His Or Her Way From Doubt To Truth As One Who Reaches A Clearing Through A Thicket Of Brambles And Thorns.

The Tragic Side Of Many Architectural Enterprises Is That They Destroy Natural Beauties Which Are A Priceless Possession And Cannot Be Replaced.

Literature Is My Utopia

Every Modern War Has Had Its Roots In Exploitation.

I Have An Unshakable Belief That Mankind's Higher Nature Is On The Whole Still Dormant. The Greatest Souls Reveal Excellencies Of Mind And Heart Which Their Lesser Fellows Possess-hidden, It Is True, But There All The Same.

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

Trending Author

George Saunders

Category