How to See More Through the Sight of the Blind
Learning from the most famous blind and deaf person in the world
Imagine becoming blind and deaf at the age of only 19 months old. While being either blind or deaf would stop most of us from accomplishing much in life, this person was unstoppable. In 1904 she was the first blind-deaf person to graduate from college, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Radcliffe College, which later merged with Harvard University.
She became a world-famous speaker, author of 12 books, and traveled to more than 40 countries. One of the most significant accomplishments was her advocacy for people with disabilities. In 1964 at the age of 84 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Helen Keller is known throughout the world as a symbol of courage in the face of overwhelming odds. She lived a significant life and had many deep insights. She lived an amazing life by any standards. Keller died in 1968 just a few weeks short of her 88th birthday.
I recently covered a few of Keller’s insights in How to Improve Your Vision. In this article I want to share more of her thoughts through her many quotes I have collected over the years. I have arranged the quotes in groups and in an order that will help you get the most out of each.
Success, Achievement, and Happiness
“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”
“We can do anything we want to 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.”
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“While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.”
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
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“No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.”
“My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.”
“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.”
“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.”
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“No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.”
“Certainly I believe that God gave us life for happiness, not misery. Humanity, I am sure, will never be made lazy or indifferent by an excess of happiness. 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. Happiness should be a means of accomplishment, like health, not an end in itself.”
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
Relationships
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
“The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.”
“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
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“Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.”
“When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”
God
“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.”
“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”
“All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.”
“I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower — the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”
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“It’s wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.”
“God himself is not secure, having given man dominion over his work.”
Senses, Sight, and Seeing
“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.”
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.”
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“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.”
“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 I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.”
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“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.”
“Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.”
Learning and Knowledge
“Knowledge is love and light and vision.”
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
“What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.”
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“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.”
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”
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“People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”
“College isn’t the place to go for ideas.”
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”
Wisdom for Life
“I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.”
“Life is either a great adventure or nothing.”
“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
“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.”
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“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.”
“It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.”
“There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”
“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.”
If you wish to learn more about Helen Keller, I suggest starting with her autobiography, The Story of My Life. You may also want to watch one or more of several movies made about her life during the last century.
There is much to be learned from Helen Keller’s words and deeds. Let her life inspire you to live yours to the fullest!
Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION.
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