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Helen
Keller
How is it possible that a woman who
was blind
and deaf from the age of 1 1/2 can be so full
of encouragement and love of
life? How is it
that we who don't suffer her afflictions don't see
life in as positive a light as she did? Her beautiful words and
motivational perspective are hard
to match, and her love of life shines
as a model
for us all. If I can feel half as positive about
life
as her words speak, I'll be a very happy
person indeed. Thank you,
Helen.
Read more about
Helen Keller here.
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thinkers home |
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True happiness is not
attained through self-gratification,
but through fidelity to a worthy
purpose.
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Knowledge
is happiness, because to have knowledge--broad deep knowledge-- is to
know true ends from false, and lofty things
from low. To know the
thoughts and deeds that have marked
man's progress
is to feel the great
heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries;
and if one does not feel
in these pulsations a heavenward striving,
one must indeed be deaf
to
the harmonies of life.
I
believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal
longings.
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It
need not discourage us if we are full of doubts. Healthy questions
keep faith dynamic. In fact, unless we start with doubts we cannot
have a deep-rooted faith. One who believes lightly and
unthinkingly has not much of a belief. Those who have a faith which is
not shaken have won it through blood and tears--have worked their way from
doubt to truth as one who reaches a clearing
through a thicket of
brambles and thorns.
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When
indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other,
that we
are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our
fellow people,
regardless of race, color or creed, shall fill the world,
making real in our lives and our deeds that actuality of human brother
and sisterhood--until the great mass of the people shall be filled
with
the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social
justice
can
never be attained.
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I
long to accomplish a great and noble task, but my chief duty is to
accomplish
humble tasks
as though they were great and noble. The
world is moved along,
not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes,
but
also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. |
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Life is
either a daring adventure or nothing.
To keep our faces toward
change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength
undefeatable. |
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The hands of
those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. I have met people so empty
of joy
that when I clasped their frosty fingertips it seemed as if I
were shaking hands
with a northeast storm. Others there are whose
hands have sunbeams in them,
so that their grasp warms my heart.
It may be only the clinging touch of a child's hand,
but there is as
much potential sunshine in it for me as there is in a loving glance for
others. |
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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. |
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Never
bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight
in the face.
(to a five-year-old blind child) |
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I
have walked with people whose eyes are full of light
but who see nothing
in sea or sky, nothing in city streets, nothing in books.
It were
far better to sail forever in the night of blindness with sense,
and
feeling, and mind, than to be content with the mere act of seeing.
The only lightless dark is the night of darkness in ignorance and
insensibility. |
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One
can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar. |
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never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the
world. |
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Everything has its
wonders, even darkness and silence,
and I learn, whatever state I may be
in, therein to be content. |
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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 people.
It then appears that we are among the privileged.
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Believe,
when you are most unhappy,
that there is something for you to do in the
world.
So long as you can sweeten another's pain,
life is not in
vain. |
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My
friends have made the story of my life.
In a thousand ways they
have turned my limitations
into beautiful privileges, and enabled me to
walk
serene and happy in the shadow cast by my deprivation.
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Optimism
is the faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done
without hope and confidence. |
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Be of
good cheer. Do not think of today's failures,
but of the success
that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task,
but you will succeed if you persevere;
and you will find a joy in
overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make
to attain
something beautiful is ever lost. |
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Join the
great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with
kindness.
Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts, and you shall
make your name,
your college, the world, correspond to that
vision. Your success and happiness lie within you.
External
conditions are the accidents of life, its outer wrappings. The
great, enduring realities
are love and service. Joy is the holy
fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible
host against difficulty. |
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