Top 400 Helen Keller Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “So imagination crowns the experience of my hands. And they learned their cunning from the wise hand of another, which, itself guided by imagination, led me safely in paths that I knew not, made darkness light before me, and made crooked ways straight.”

— Helen Keller

352. “I will eat grandfather for dinner.”

— Helen Keller

353. “As my college days draw to a close, I find myself looking forward with beating heart and bright anticipations to what the future holds of activity for me. My share in the work of the world may be limited; but the fact that it is work makes it precious. Nay, the desire and will to work is optimism itself.”

— Helen Keller

354. “The civilization of a state should be measured by the amount of suffering it prevents and the degree of happiness it makes possible for its citizens.”

— Helen Keller

355. “He who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widower.”

— Helen Keller

356. “The richness of the human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome.”

— Helen Keller

357. “We should not think of conversion as the acceptance of a particular creed, but as a change of heart.”

— Helen Keller

358. “Joy is a spiritual element that gives vicissitudes unity and significance.”

— Helen Keller

359. “FOR some inexplicable reason the sense of smell does not hold the high position it deserves among its sisters. There is something of the fallen angel about it. When it woos us with woodland scents and beguiles us with the fragrance of lovely gardens, it is admitted frankly to our discourse. But when it gives us warning of something noxious in our vicinity, it is treated as if the demon had got the upper hand of the angel, and is relegated to outer darkness, punished for its faithful service.”

— Helen Keller

360. “Good friends walk in when the old ones walk out.”

— Helen Keller

361. “What is the use of such terrible diligence as many tire themselves out with, if they always postpone their exchange of smiles with Beauty and Joy to cling to irksome duties and relations?”

— Helen Keller

362. “There is one universal religion, Helen – the religion of love. Love your Heavenly Father with your whole heart and soul, love every child of God as much as ever you can, and remember that the possibilities of good are greater than the possibilities of evil; and you have the key to Heaven.”

— Helen Keller

363. “It is not possible to refer a complex difficulty to a single cause.”

— Helen Keller

364. “As I wander through the dark, encountering difficulties, I am aware of encouraging voices that murmur from the spirit realm. I sense a holy passion pouring down from the springs of Infinity. I thrill to music that beats with the pulses of God. Bound to suns and planets by invisible cords, I feel the flame of eternity in my soul.”

— Helen Keller

365. “Many scholars forget, it seems to me, that our enjoyment of the great works of literature depends more upon the depth of our sympathy than upon our understanding.”

— Helen Keller

366. “Now, however, I see the folly of attempting to hitch one’s wagon to a star with a harness that does not belong to it.”

— Helen Keller

367. “I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.”

— Helen Keller

368. “Anything I have ever done that was ultimately worthwhile, initially scare me to death!”

— Helen Keller

369. “Few pleasures there are indeed without an aftertouch of pain, but that is the preservation which keeps them sweet.”

— Helen Keller

370. “Commercial concerns have expanded from family business to corporate wealth which is self-perpetuating and which enlightened statesmen and economists now dread as the most potent oligarchy yet produced.”

— Helen Keller

371. “Be heroes in an army of construction.”

— Helen Keller

372. “The German puts strength before beauty, and truth before convention, both in life and in literature. There is a vehement, sledge-hammer vigour about everything that he does. When he speaks, it is not to impress others, but because his heart would burst if he did not find an outlet for the thoughts that burn in his soul. Then, too, there is in German literature a fine reserve which I like; but its chief glory is the recognition I find in it of the redeeming potency.”

— Helen Keller

373. “In college, there is no time to commune with one’s thoughts. One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one leaves the dearest pleasures–solitude, books and imagination–outside with the whispering pines. I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day.”

— Helen Keller

374. “It is an unspeakable boon to me to be able to speak in winged words that need no interpretation.”

— Helen Keller

375. “For, after all, every one who wishes to gain true knowledge must climb the Hill Difficulty alone, and since there is no royal road to the summit, I must zigzag it in my own way. I slip back many times, I fall, I stand still, I run against the edge of hidden obstacles, I lose my temper and find it again and keep it better. I trudge on, I gain a little, I feel encouraged, I get more eager and climb higher and begin to see the widening horizon.”

— Helen Keller

376. “The highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the tribes and the nations, have been optimists.”

— Helen Keller

377. “People are too prone to think that the actual is the limit of possibility. They believe that all that has been done is all that can be done.”

— Helen Keller

378. “The attempt to suppress an idea has always and everywhere proved a failure.”

— Helen Keller

379. “A tangible object passes complete into my brain with the warmth of life upon it, and occupies the same place that it does in space; for, without egotism, the mind is as large as the universe.”

— Helen Keller

380. “The thought that my dear Heavenly Father is always near, giving me abundantly of all those things, which truly enrich life and make it sweet and beautiful, makes every deprivation seem of little moment compared with the countless blessings I enjoy.”

— Helen Keller

381. “Surely there is no road of effort so steep but a loving deed may soften its hardshness.”

— Helen Keller

382. “You can burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas in them have seeped through a million channels and will continue to quicken other minds.”

— Helen Keller

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

— Helen Keller

384. “The best preparedness is the one that disarms the hostility of other nations and makes friends of them.”

— Helen Keller

385. “It is certain that I cannot always distinguish my own thoughts from those I read, because what I read becomes the very substance and text of my mind.”

— Helen Keller

386. “The hand is defined as “the organ of apprehension.” How perfectly the definition fits my case in both senses of the word “apprehend”! With my hand I seize and hold all that I find in the three worlds – physical, intellectual, and spiritual.”

— Helen Keller

387. “I have an unshakable belief that mankind’s higher nature is on the whole still dormant. The greatest souls reveal excellencies of mind and heart which their lesser fellows possess-hidden, it is true, but there all the same.”

— Helen Keller

388. “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.”

— Helen Keller

389. “My favorite quote: “Life’s a daring adventure, or nothing.” – Helen Keller, who lived life to the fullest, despite the most challenging of handicaps.”

— Helen Keller

390. “Some of the most significant discoveries in modern science owe their origin to the imagination of men who had neither accurate knowledge nor exact instruments to demonstrate their beliefs.”

— Helen Keller

391. “Knowledge is power.” Rather, 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.”

— Helen Keller

392. “One must envision the higher life and behave as if it were a fact before it can unfold.”

— Helen Keller

393. “The only lightless dark is the night of ingnorance and insensibility.”

— Helen Keller

394. “But there is not space to mention all my friends and indeed there are things about them hidden behind the wings of the cherubim, things to sacred to set forth in cold print.”

— Helen Keller

395. “One brief spring, musical with the song of robin and mocking-bird, one summer rich in fruit and roses, one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager, delighted child.”

— Helen Keller

396. “T he test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life.”

— Helen Keller

397. “My work was practice, practice, practice. Discouragement and weariness cast me down frequently; but the next moment the thought that I should soon be at home and show my loved ones what I had accomplished spurred me on, and I eagerly looked forward to their pleasure in my achievement.”

— Helen Keller

398. “Personally I do not believe in a national agency devoted only to the negro blind because in spirit and principle I am against all segregation, and the blind already have difficulties enough without being cramped and harassed by social barriers.”

— Helen Keller

399. “Relationships are like Rome – difficult to start out, incredible during the prosperity of the ‘golden age’, and unbearable during the fall. Then, a new kingdom will come along and the whole process will repeat itself until you come across a kingdom like Egypt... that thrives, and continues to flourish. This kingdom will become your best friend, your soul mate, and your love.”

— Helen Keller

400. “To get Congress to do anything.”

— Helen Keller