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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.

-Helen Keller

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We Need Limitations And

Helen Keller

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The Fearful Are Caught As Often As The Bold.

When One Doors Closes, Another Door Opens.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

Doubts And Mistrust Are The Mere Panic Of Timid Imagination, Which The Steadfast Heart Will Conquer, And The Large Mind Transcend.

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.

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

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

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

Our 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?

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Character Cannot Be Developed In Ease And Quiet.

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

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

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

Smell Is A Fallen Angel.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

This Great Republic Is A Mockery Of Freedom As Long As You Are Doomed To Dig And Sweat To Earn A Miserable Living While The Masters Enjoy The Fruit Of Your Toil.

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?

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.

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

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

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

Literature Is My Utopia

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

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.

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

Be Happy. Talk Happiness.

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.

The Highest Result Of Education Is Tolerance.

Knowledge Is Love And Light And Vision.

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

It Is So Pleasant To Learn About New Things. Every Day I Find How Little I Know, But I Do Not Feel Discouraged Since God Has Given Me An Eternity In Which To Learn More.

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

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

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!

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

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.

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 Have Found Out That Though The Ways In Which I Can Make Myself Useful Are Few, Yet The Work Open To Me Is Endless.

There Is In The Blind As In The Seeing An Absolute Which Gives Truth To What We Know To Be True, Order To What Is Orderly, Beauty To The Beautiful, Touchableness To What Is Tangible.

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.

Security Is Mostly A Superstition. It Does Not Exist In Nature.

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

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.

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

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.

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

I Have Found Life So Beautiful.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Independent Women

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

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

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.

It Is Not Possible To Refer A Complex Difficulty To A Single Cause.

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.

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

Life Is A Daring Adventure Or Nothing.

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

I Don't Give A Damn About Semi-radicals!

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.

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

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

God Himself Is Not Secure, Having Given Man Dominion Over His Work.

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

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

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

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.

One Painful Duty Fulfilled Makes The Next Plainer And Easier.

Self Discipline

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The Continued Lynchings And Other Crimes Against Negroes, Whether In New England Or The South, And Unspeakable Political Exponents Of White Supremacy, According To All Recorded History, Augur Ill For America's Future.

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

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

Happiness Is Like The Mountain Summit. It Is Sometimes Hidden By Clouds, But We Know It Is There.

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.

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

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

I Have Often Been Asked, Do Not People Bore You? I Do Not Understand Quite What That Means. I Suppose The Calls Of The Stupid And Curious, Especially Of Newspaper Reporters, Are Always Inopportune. I Also Dislike People Who Try To Talk Down To My Understanding. They Are Like People Who When Walking With You Try To Shorten Their Steps To Suit Yours; The Hypocrisy In Both Cases Is Equally Exasperating.

Happiness Does Not Come From Without, It Comes From Within

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 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.

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

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.

The One Resolution, Which Was In My Mind Long Before It Took The Form Of A Resolution, Is The Key-note Of My Life. It Is This, Always To Regard As Mere Impertinences Of Fate The Handicaps Which Were Placed Upon My Life Almost At The Beginning. I Resolved That They Should Not Crush Or Dwarf My Soul, But Rather Be Made To Blossom, Like Aaron's Rod, With Flowers.

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

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

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

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

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

Every Modern War Has Had Its Roots In Exploitation.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

There Is A Dangerous Optimism Of Ignorance And Indifference.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Great Poetry Needs No Interpreter Other Than A Responsive Heart.

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.

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

To Get Congress To Do Anything.

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

Wonder Of Nature

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.

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

Good Friends Walk In When The Old Ones Walk Out.

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!

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

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.

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

No Pessimist Ever Discovered The Secrets Of The Stars.

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.

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.

Toleration Is The Greatest Gift Of The Mind.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

The 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.

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

Tyranny Cannot Defeat The Power Of Ideas.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Good Education Is A Stepping-stone To Wealth.

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.

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.

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.

Defeat Is Simply A Signal To Press Onward.

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