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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.

-Helen Keller

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Once I Knew The

Helen Keller

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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.

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

Is Love The Sweetness Of Flowers?

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

Deep, Solemn Optimism, It Seems To Me, Should Spring From This Firm Belief In The Presence Of God In The Individual; Not A Remote, Unapproachable Governor Of The Universe, But A God Who Is Very Near Every One Of Us, Who Is Present Not Only In Earth, Sea And Sky, But Also In Every Pure And Noble Impulse Of Our Hearts.

Great Poetry Needs No Interpreter Other Than A Responsive Heart.

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

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

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.

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

Fear: The Best Way Out Is Through.

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

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

The Place Between Your Comfort Zone And Your Dream Is Where Life Takes Place.

I Have Found Life So Beautiful.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Life Is An Exciting Business, And Most Exciting When It Is Lived For Others.

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

Tolerance Is The First Principle Of Community; It Is The Spirit Which Conserves The Best That All Men Think.

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.

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.

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.

The Few Who Profit From The Labor Of The Masses Want To Organize The Workers Into An Army Which Will Protect The Interests Of The Capitalists.

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

I Take Happiness Very Seriously. It Is A Creed, A Philosophy And An Objective.

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

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

Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

For, After All, Every One Who Wishes To Gain True Knowledge Must Climb The Hill Difficulty Alone, And Since There Is No Royal Road To The Summit, I Must Zigzag It In My Own Way. I Slip Back Many Times, I Fall, I Stand Still, I Run Against The Edge Of Hidden Obstacles, I Lose My Temper And Find It Again And Keep It Better, I Trudge On, I Gain A Little, I Feel Encouraged, I Get More Eager And Climb Higher And Begin To See The Widening Horizon. Every Struggle Is A Victory. One More Effort And I Reach The Luminous Cloud, The Blue Depths Of The Sky, The Uplands Of My Desire.

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

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

Lives Of Others

Happiness Does Not Come From Without, It Comes From Within

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.

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

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.

The Idea Of Brotherhood Re-dawns Upon The World With A Broader Significance Than The Narrow Association Of Members In A Sect Or Creed.

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

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.

Every Optimist Moves Along With Progress And Hastens It, While Every Pessimist Would Keep The Worlds At A Standstill. The Consequence Of Pessimism In The Life Of A Nation Is The Same As In The Life Of The Individual. Pessimism Kills The Instinct That Urges Men To Struggle Against Poverty, Ignorance And Crime, And Dries Up All The Fountains Of Joy In The World.

Christmas Day Is The Festival 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.

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.

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.

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

I Don't Want To Live In A Hand -me -down World Of Others' Experiences. I Want To Write About Me, My Discoveries, My Fears, My Feelings, About Me.

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

Independent Women

Knowledge Is Love And Light And Vision.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

If We Do Not Like Our Work, And Do Not Try To Get Happiness Out Of It, We Are A Menace To Our Profession As Well As To Ourselves.

Life Is An Adventure Or Nothing

Life Is An Adventure

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

Ignorance, Poverty, And Greed Must Disappear So That Light Can Prevail In All Places.

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

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

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.

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

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

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 Never Fight, Except Against Difficulties.

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

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.

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

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

We Should Respect All People.

I Feel The Flame Of Eternity In My Soul.

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

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

Speech Is The Birthright Of Every Child. It Is The Deaf Child's One Fair Chance To Keep In Touch With His Fellows.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Every Modern War Has Had Its Roots In Exploitation.

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.

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.

If I, Deaf, Blind, Find Life Rich And Interesting, How Much More Can You Gain By The Use Of Your Five Senses!

I Believe That God Is In Me As The Sun Is In The Colour And Fragrance Of A Flower - The Light In My Darkness, The Voice In My Silence.

Things Must Be Felt With The Heart.

Long Distance Relationship

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

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.

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.

The Inferiority Of Women Is Man-made.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

We Have Prayed, We Have Coaxed, We Have Begged, For The Vote, With The Hope That Men, Out Of Chivalry, Would Bestow Equal Rights Upon Women And Take Them Into Partnership In The Affairs Of The State. We Hoped That Their Common Sense Would Triumph Over Prejudices And Stupidity. We Thought Their Boasted Sense Of Justice Would Overcome The Errors That So Often Fetter The Human Spirit; But We Have Always Gone Away Empty Handed. We Shall Beg No More.

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.

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.

Literature Is My Utopia

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.

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.

Be Happy, Talk Happiness. Happiness Calls Out Responsive Gladness In Others. There Is Enough Sadness In The World Without Yours.

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

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.

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.

My Friends Have Made The Story Of My Life.

The Highest Result Of Education Is Tolerance.

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

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

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?

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

Happiness Rarely Keeps Company With An Empty Stomach

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Be Happy. Talk Happiness.

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

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

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

I Thank God For My Handicaps. For Through Them, I Have Found Myself, My Work And My God.

Knowing Who You Are

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.

Your Success & Happiness Lies In You.

Success Happiness

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

When Indeed Shall We Learn That We Are All Related One To The Other, That We Are All Members Of One Body? Until The Spirit Of Love For Our Fellow People, Regardless Of Race, Color, Or Creed, Shall Fill The World, Making Real In Our Lives And Our Deeds The Actuality Of Human Brother- And Sisterhood, 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.

No Matter How Dull, Or How Mean, Or How Wise A Man Is, He Feels That Happiness Is His Indisputable Right.

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Bulk Of The World's Knowledge Is An Imaginary Construction.

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

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.

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.

Ideas Without Action Are Useless.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Making Mistakes

No Nation Is Wise Enough To Rule Another.

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.

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

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.

A Good Education Is A Stepping-stone To Wealth.

So Long As The Memory Of Certain Beloved Friends Lives In My Heart, I Shall Say That Life Is Good.

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.

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!

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. The Odors Of Fruits Waft Me To My Southern Home, To My Childhood Frolics In The Peach Orchard. Other Odors, Instantaneous And Fleeting, Cause My Heart To Dilate Joyously Or Contract With Remembered Grief. Even As I Think Of Smells, My Nose Is Full Of Scents That Start Awake Sweet Memories Of Summers Gone And Ripening Fields Far Away.

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.

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

The Power Of Effecting Changes For The Better Is Within Ourselves, Not In The Favorableness Of Circumstances.

Change For The Better

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

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

Ruth Is So Loyal And Gentle-hearted, We Cannot Help Loving Her, As She Stands With The Reapers Amid The Waving Corn. Her Beautiful, Unselfish Spirit Shines Out Like A Bright Star In The Night Of A Dark And Cruel Age. Love Like Ruth's, Love Which Can Rise Above Conflicting Creeds And Deep-seated Racial Prejudices, Is Hard To Find In All The World.

I Had Once Believed That We Were All Masters Of Our Fate--that We Could Mold Our Lives Into Any Form We Pleased... I Had Overcome Deafness And Blindness Sufficiently To Be Happy, And I Supposed That Anyone Could Come Out Victorious If He Threw Himself Valiantly Into Life's Struggle. But As I Went More And More About The Country I Learned That I Had Spoken With Assurance On A Subject I Knew Little About... I Learned That The Power To Rise In The World Is Not Within The Reach Of Everyone.

I Am Only One, But Still I Am One.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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