Helen Keller

“The simplest way to be happy is to do good.”

“A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.”

“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.”

“Happiness is one of the slowest ripening fruits in the Garden of Life, and, like all fruits, it must be grown.”

“I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective.”

“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.”

“To each one of us is given in some degree the power to create and distribute happiness, and that is about the best thing any one of us can do.”

“I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring.”

“Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand.”

“He who is content with what has been done is an obstacle in the path of progress.”

“I do not like the world as it is; so I am trying to make it a little more as I want it.”

“The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.”

“Education should train the child to use his brains, to make for himself a place in the world and maintain his rights even when it seems that society would shove him into the scrap-heap.”

“What do I consider a teacher should be? One who breathes life into knowledge so that it takes new form in progress and civilization.”

“Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.”

“The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.”

“The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better.”

“Reading has been the chief pleasure of my life. Indeed, reading has meant so much to me that I am in danger of extravagance whenever I speak of it.”

“A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life.”

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.”

“To keep on trying in spite of disappointment and failure is the only way to keep young and brave. Failures become victories if they make us wise-hearted.”

“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.”

“We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.”

“The bulk of the world's knowledge is an imaginary construction.”

“True teaching cannot be learned from text-books any more than a surgeon can acquire his skill by reading about surgery.”

“Men are never so absurd as when they urge the inferiority of women.”

“Every child has a right to be well-born, well-nurtured and well-taught, and only the freedom of woman can guarantee him this right.”

“Rights are things which we get when we are strong enough to make our claim to them good. Today women are asserting their rights; tomorrow nobody will be foolhardy enough to question them.”

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

“Some people do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions; and conclusions are not always pleasant. They are a thorn in the spirit.”

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends.”

“I do not remember a time since I have been capable of loving books that I have not loved Shakespeare.”