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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.

-Helen Keller

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We Have Prayed, We

Helen Keller

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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Change For The Better

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

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

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

Making Mistakes

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

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

Happiness Rarely Keeps Company With An Empty Stomach

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.

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

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

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

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 Doors Closes, Another Door Opens.

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.

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.

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

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

Happiness Does Not Come From Without, It Comes From Within

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.

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.

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

Your Success & Happiness Lies In You.

Success Happiness

Even If You Have A Problem, You Don't Need To Be One.

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.

We Should Respect All People.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

What Is Worse Than Having No Sight Is Being Able To See But Having No Vision.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

The Most Beautiful World Is Always Entered Through Imagination.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Every Modern War Has Had Its Roots In Exploitation.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 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

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.

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.

To Me A Lush Carpet Of Pine Needles Or Spongy Grass Is More Welcome Than The Most Luxurious Persian Rug.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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 Heresy Of One Age Becomes The Orthodoxy Of The Next.

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

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.

Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

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

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

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

I Feel The Flame Of Eternity In My Soul.

The Best Things In Life Are Not Seen Or Heard ... But Felt With The Heart.

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.

Tyranny Cannot Defeat The Power Of Ideas.

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.

Sick Or Well, Blind Or Seeing, Bond Or Free, We Are Here For A Purpose And However We Are Situated, We Please God Better With Useful Deeds Than With Many Prayers Or Pious Resignation. The Temple Or Church Is Empty Unless The Good Of Life Fills It . . . Holy If Only . . . We Offer The Only Sacrifices Ever Commanded-the Love That Is Stronger Than Hate And The Faith That Overcometh Doubt.

Toleration Is The Greatest Gift Of The Mind.

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

Be Heroes In An Army Of Construction.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Independent Women

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

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.

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

Love? Why ... It Is What Everybody Feels For Everybody Else.

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.

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.

Things Must Be Felt With The Heart.

Long Distance Relationship

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

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.

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

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.… You Ask For Votes For Women. What Good Can Votes Do When Ten-elevenths Of The Land Of Great Britain Belongs To 200,000 And Only One-eleventh To The Rest Of The 40,000,000? Have Your Men With Their Millions Of Votes Freed Themselves From This Injustice?

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

The Clatter Of A Changing World Is Not Pleasant, And Those Who Have Enjoyed The Comforts And Protection Of The Old Order May Be Shocked And Unhappy When They Behold The Vigorous Young Builders Of A New World Sweeping Away Their Time-honored Antiquities.

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

Smell Is A Fallen Angel.

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

Smells Are The Fallen Angels Of The Senses.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

True Friends Never Apart Maybe In Distance But Never In Heart

Long Distance Relationship

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.

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

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.

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.

I Sometimes Wonder If The Hand Is Not More Sensitive To The Beauties Of Sculpture Than The Eye. I Should Think The Wonderful Rhythmical Flow Of Lines And Curves Could Be More Subtly Felt Than Seen. Be This As It May, I Know That I Can Feel The Heart-throbs Of The Ancient Greeks In Their Marble Gods And Goddesses.

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

Wonder Of Nature

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

I Have Found Life So Beautiful.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Lives Of Others

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

No Pessimist Ever Discovered The Secret Of The Stars, Or Sailed To An Uncharted Land, Or Opened A New Doorway For The Human Spirit.

Character Cannot Be Developed In Ease And Quiet.

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.

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

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 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.

The Unselfish Effort To Bring Cheer To Others Will Be The Beginning Of A Happier Life For Ourselves.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 World Is Sown With Good; But Unless I Turn My Glad Thoughts Into Practical Living And Till My Own Field. I Cannot Reap A Kernel Of The Good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Will Eat Grandfather For Dinner.

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