Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Helen Keller Activist

  • Gender: Female
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Jun 27, 1880
  • Died: Jun 1968

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama is now a museum and sponsors an annual "Helen Keller Day". Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and was authorized at the federal level by presidential proclamation by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the 100th anniversary of her birth.

A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other radical left causes. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971.

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

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.

True happiness... is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Alone we can do so little together we can do so much.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

Knowledge is love and light and vision.

My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.

Science may have found a cure for most evils but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.

To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.

Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought!

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.