Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was an American author, political activist, lecturer and the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree.
Keller was born a healthy child but at the age of 19 months, she became deaf and blind as a result of an unknown illness, perhaps meningitis or scarlet fever. As she grew up into childhood, Helen and her friend, Martha Washington, invented a limited sign language in order to communicate with each other. However, Keller became an uncontrollable child and many family relatives felt she should be institutionalized.
Her mother never gave up on her and constantly tried to find solutions that would better her daughter’s condition. Thus, Helen’s life changed when Anne Sullivan came to Tuscumbia to be her teacher. Sullivan's success with Helen remains an extraordinary and remarkable story and is best known to people because of the movie The Miracle Worker.
After college, Keller became a well-known lecturer by sharing her experiences with audiences, and working on behalf of others living with disabilities. She brought inspiration by being a powerful example of how determination and hard work can allow anyone to overcome life’s most terrible obstacles.
Here are 25 inspirational Helen Keller quotes on happiness, vision and purpose.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.
Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
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.
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.
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.
Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.
When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don’t see the one that has opened for us.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
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.
Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this 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.
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.
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.
There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
Knowledge is love and light and vision.
People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
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