Looking for inspirational quotes by the author Helen Keller? We have rounded up the best collection of Helen Keller quotes, sayings, wishes, and captions (with images and pictures) about life, love, dreams, and relationships.
Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer.
Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness at the age of 19 months. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree.
Keller was also a prolific author, writing 14 books and hundreds of speeches and essays on topics ranging from animals to Mahatma Gandhi.
She was the first deaf and blind person to write her biography The Story of my Life, at the age of 22.
She was an author, activist, lecturer, pacifist, radical socialist, and a birth control supporter.
The life of Helen Keller is an inspiration and example that everything is possible if you set your mind to it, so never give up in life and keep dreaming.
Here are some of the deep inspirational Helen Keller quotes on happiness, vision, dreams, and purpose that will give you deep insight into life.
Don’t forget to check out our collection of Florence Nightingale and Anne Frank quotes to inspire and motivate you.
Top 10 Helen Keller Quotes
- “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
helen keller quotes
- “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” – Helen Keller
- “The most beautiful world is always entered through imagination.” – Helen Keller
- “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” – Helen Keller
quotes from helen keller
- “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” – Helen Keller
quotes by helen keller
- “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
- “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller
- “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
Famous Helen Keller Quotes
- “Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
Famous Quotes By Helen Keller
- “Literature is my Utopia.” – Helen Keller
- “The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller
helen keller quotations
- “What I’m looking for is not out there, it is in me.” – Helen Keller
- “It all comes to this: the simplest way to be happy is to do good.” – Helen Keller
helen keller quotes on life
- “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” – Helen Keller
- “I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective.” – Helen Keller
- “A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.” – Helen Keller
helen keller inspirational quotes
- “I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring.” – Helen Keller
- “I believe humility is a virtue, but I prefer not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.” – Helen Keller
- “Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world.” – Helen Keller
- “I think the degree of a nation’s civilization may be measured by the degree of enlightenment of its women.” – Helen Keller
- “Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.” – Helen Keller
- “People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.” – Helen Keller
- “More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.” – Helen Keller
- “As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill.” – Helen Keller
- “True teaching cannot be learned from text-books any more than a surgeon can acquire his skill by reading about surgery.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “The world is not moved only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each others welfare, social justice can never be attained.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “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 something that I can do.” – Helen Keller
- “When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one’s brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “The infinite wonders of the universe are revealed to us in exact measure as we are capable of receiving them. The keenness of our vision depends not on how much we can see, but on how much we feel.” – Helen Keller
- “Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design.” – Helen Keller
- “I cannot but say a word and look my disapproval when I hear that my country is spending millions for war and war engines—more, I have heard, than twice as much as the entire public school system costs the nation.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “We have prayed, we have coaxed, we have begged, for the vote, with the hope that men, out of chivalry, would bestow equal rights upon women and take them into partnership in the affairs of the state. We hoped that their common sense would triumph over prejudices and stupidity. We thought their boasted sense of justice would overcome the errors that so often fetter the human spirit; but we have always gone away empty handed. We shall beg no more.” – Helen Keller
Inspirational Helen Keller Quotes On Love
- “College isn’t the place to go for ideas.” – Helen Keller
- “One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.” – Helen Keller
- “Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.” – Helen Keller
- “We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough.” – Helen Keller
Helen Keller Quotes Images
- “We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.” – Helen Keller
- “Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.” – Helen Keller
- “I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.” – Helen Keller
- “What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” – Helen Keller
- “Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” – Helen Keller
- “Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.” – Helen Keller
- “You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.” – Helen Keller
- “What a strange life I lead— a kind of Cinderella-life—half glitter in crystal shoes, half mice and cinders! But it is a wonderful life all the same.” – Helen Keller
- “It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.” – Helen Keller
- “Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.” – Helen Keller
- “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
Best Helen Keller Quotes On Vision
For someone who lived without the ability to see, Helen Keller knew a thing or two about vision. In fact, she said, “It’s a terrible thing to see, and have no vision!”
For Helen Keller, vision – meaning a goal, a plan or a life mission – was much more important than the physical ability to see.
She knew that when you are dedicated to a vision you believe in, you’re more likely to achieve it.
- “Knowledge is love and light and vision.” – Helen Keller
- “Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.” – Helen Keller
- “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” – Helen Keller
Helen Keller Quotes About Vision
- “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.” – Helen Keller
- “As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.” – Helen Keller
- “To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.” – Helen Keller
- “There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.” – Helen Keller
- “As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so sex with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.” – Helen Keller
- “When you lose your vision, you lose contact with things. When you lose your hearing, you lose contact with people.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
Positive Helen Keller Quotes On Life And Death
Helen was known for her constant positivity. She said, “Keep your face in the sunshine and you will never see the shadow,” as well as “Although the world is full of suffering it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
These positive words by Helen Keller will motivate you to always see the brighter side of things and always keep dreaming.
- “My friends have made the story of my life.” – Helen Keller
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
Top Helen Keller Quotes
- “I rejoice to live in such a splendidly disturbing time!” – Helen Keller
- “Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first.” – Helen Keller
- “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” – Helen Keller
- “Happiness is the final and perfect fruit of obedience to the laws of life.” – Helen Keller
- “A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.” – Helen Keller
- “Blindness separates people from things; deafness separates people from people.” – Helen Keller
- “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.” – Helen Keller
- “The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.” – Helen Keller
- “I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings.” – Helen Keller
- “I thank God for my handicaps. For through them, I have found myself, my work and my God.” – Helen Keller
- “The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.” – Helen Keller
- “The chief handicap of the blind is not blindness, but the attitude of seeing people towards them.” – Helen Keller
- “To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable.” – Helen Keller
- “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” – Helen Keller
- “Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.” – Helen Keller
- “We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world – the company of those who have known suffering.” – Helen Keller
- “Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly.” – Helen Keller
- “Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.” – Helen Keller
- “I wonder what becomes of lost opportunities? Perhaps our guardian angel gathers them up as we drop them, and will give them back to us in the beautiful sometime when we have grown wiser, and learned how to use them rightly.” – Helen Keller
- “It has been said that life has treated me harshly; and sometimes I have complained in my heart because many pleasures of human experience have been withheld from me… if much has been denied me, much, very much, has been given me…” – Helen Keller
Positive Helen Keller Quotes About Success
- “Your success and happiness lie in you.” – Helen Keller
- “While they were saying it couldn’t be done, it was done.” – Helen Keller
- “I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” – Helen Keller
Best Helen Keller Quotes
- “So much has been given to me I have not time to ponder over that which has been denied.” – Helen Keller
- “Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.” – Helen Keller
- “The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better.” – Helen Keller
- “When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.” – Helen Keller
- “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller
- “What do I consider a teacher should be? One who breathes life into knowledge so that it takes new form in progress and civilization.” – Helen Keller
- “The woman who works for a dollar a day has as much right as any other human being to say what the conditions of her work should be.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.” – Helen Keller
- “There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.” – Helen Keller
- “Many of us delude ourselves with the thought that if we could stand in the lot of our more fortunate neighbor, we could live better, happier and more useful lives. . . . It is my experience that unless we can succeed in our present position, we could not succeed in any other.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
Helen Keller Quotes On Dreams And Goals
- “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Helen Keller
Helen Keller Quotes Motivation
- “So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.” – Helen Keller
- “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into light.” – Helen Keller
- “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller
hellen keller quotes
- “People don’t like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
- “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.” – Helen Keller
More About Helen Adams Keller
Born: June 27, 1880 Tuscumbia, Alabama, U.S.
Died: June 1, 1968 (aged 87) Easton, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation: Authorpolitical activistlecturer
Awards: Presidential Medal of Freedom
Education: Radcliffe College (1900–1904)
Organizations Founded: Helen Keller International, American Civil Liberties Union
Fascinating Facts About Helen Keller
- Helen was the very first person who was deaf and blind to graduate. From Radcliffe, no less, from which she graduated cum laude in 1904 with a Bachelor’s Degree.
- She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The nomination came after Keller visited the Mideast in 1952 and met with local leaders to advocate for the rights of those who were blind or disabled.
- Helen visited 39 countries around the world during her lifetime.
- Helen Keller was a member of the Socialist Party of America.
- Helen Keller traveled the world to advocate for people with disabilities.
- Helen won an Oscar for the documentary about her life, “Helen Keller in Her Story.”
- It wasn’t until Helen met her teacher Anne Sullivan (who went on to become her mentor and friend), that she believed her ‘soul was born’.
- Helen met Mark when she was just 14, when going to Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and they stayed close friends until Mark’s death 16 years later.
- The Bollywood movie Black (2005) was largely based on Keller’s story, from her childhood to her graduation.
- Helen Keller wrote to eight Presidents of the United States and received letters from all of them—from Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.
- Helen was friends with many famous people, including Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone; the writer Mark Twain; and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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If we have missed some quotes, share them with us in the comment section below and we shall be happy to add them to the list.
