Helen Keller Quotes

219 Sourced Quotes

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.

Helen Keller
Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
Even more amazing than the wonders of Nature are the powers of the spirit.

Helen Keller
I hung about the dangerous frontier of "guess," avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
What is the use of such terrible diligence as many tire themselves out with, if they always postpone their exchange of smiles with Beauty and Joy to cling to irksome duties and relations?

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
We can decide to let our trials crush us, or we can convert them to new forces of good.

Helen Keller
We should not think of conversion as the acceptance of a particular creed, but as a change of heart.

Helen Keller
Speech is the birthright of every child. It is the deaf child's one fair chance to keep in touch with his fellows.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
We betray ourselves into smallness when we think the little choices of each day are trivial.

Helen Keller
Every one of us is blind and deaf until our eyes are opened to our fellowmen, until our ears hear the voice of humanity.

Helen Keller
It is certain that I cannot always distinguish my own thoughts from those I read, because what I read becomes the very substance and text of my mind.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life.

Helen Keller
When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body?

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
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.

Helen Keller
We cannot freely and wisely choose the right way for ourselves unless we know both good and evil.

Helen Keller
The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.

Helen Keller
Once it was necessary that the people should multiply and be fruitful if the race was to survive. But now to preserve the race it is necessary that people hold back the power of propagation.

Helen Keller
I demand that the world be good, and lo, it obeys. I proclaim the world good, and facts range themselves to prove my proclamation overwhelmingly true.

Helen Keller
Joy is a spiritual element that gives vicissitudes unity and significance.

Helen Keller
God himself is not secure, having given man dominion over his work.

Helen Keller
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!

Helen Keller