Helen Keller

US blind & deaf educator (1880 - 1968)

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousand of miles and all the years you have lived.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

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.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.

The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

When one door of happiness closes, another one opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened to us.

Keep your eyes to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.

Is there anything worse than being blind? Yes, a man with sight and no vision.

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.

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.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

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 best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

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.

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.