Helen Keller was a deaf-blind woman who became a famous activist and author.
Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her family had a history of blindness, going back to her grandmother and mother. Helen’s father had died when she was just 6 months old, so her grandparents raised her from that point on.
From the age of 18 months, Helen began developing signs of an illness that caused pain in one eye and eye damage. Her family doctor diagnosed her with such illnesses as an acute congestion of the brain or meningitis. After a long battle with the disease, Helen became totally blind only two years later and lost her hearing due to scarlet fever complications, leading to complete deafness when she was 7 years old.
Here are some inspirational Helen Keller quotes for never giving up in life:
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
“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.”
“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”
“Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.”
“We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”
“The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better.”
“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
“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.”
“I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective.”
“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.”
“I believe humility is a virtue, but I prefer not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”
“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.”
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.”
“Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”
“Believe. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
“It’s a terrible thing to see, and have no vision!”
“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.”
“One can never content to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.”
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”
“All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.”
“Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.”
“What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.”
“College isn’t the place to go for ideas.”
“There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
“It all comes to this: the simplest way to be happy is to do good.”
“While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.”
“What I am looking for is not “out there,” it is in me.”
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”
“We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.”
“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.”
“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
“Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first.”
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
“Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.”
“No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.”
“No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.”
“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.”
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.”
“People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”
“Happiness is the final and perfect fruit of obedience to the laws of life.”
“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.”
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”
“Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.”
“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.”
“Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.”
“We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.”
“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”
“Knowledge is love and light and vision.”
“We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.”
“There is joy in 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.”
“There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.”
“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.”
“It’s wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.”
“True teaching cannot be learned from text-books any more than a surgeon can acquire his skill by reading about surgery.”
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
“A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.
The best way out is always through.”
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.”
“My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.”
“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.”
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
“People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
“What I’m looking for is not out there, it is in me.”
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
“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 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.”
