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30 quotes by Helen Keller · clear filters
the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart
Attribution contested
The words are Keller's, but two things in the popular version are not. The wording is smoothed -- it usually appears as they must be felt with the heart -- and, more importantly, Keller does not present the thought as her own: she writes that her teacher explained it to her. On her own account the sentence belongs at least as much to Anne Sullivan.
The tedium of that work is hard to conceive.
Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things.
If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a corner with folded hands and weep.
It lets us into the soul of things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
A man must understand evil and be acquainted with sorrow before he can write himself an optimist and expect others to believe that he has reason for the faith that is in him.
Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.
My share in the work of the world may be limited; but the fact that it is work makes it precious.
It is my service to think how I can best fulfil the demands that each day makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot.
With the first word I used intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope.
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.
Every struggle is a victory.
Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised
There are, however, times when I long to sweep away half the things I am expected to learn; for the overtaxed mind cannot enjoy the treasure it has secured at the greatest cost.
Had it not been for the persistent encouragement of Miss Sullivan, I think I should have given up trying to write altogether.
As I look back on my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed.
Joy deserted my heart, and for a long, long time I lived in doubt, anxiety and fear.
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
Their life seems an immense disparity between effort and opportunity.
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.
The optimist cannot fall back, cannot falter; for he knows his neighbor will be hindered by his failure to keep in line.
I can say with conviction that the struggle which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women.
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
Optimism that does not count the cost is like a house builded on sand.
Each halt in his progress has been but a pause before a mighty leap forward.