Quoting Helen Keller – Thoughts for the Journey

Helen Keller – The Inspiration

The life of Helen Keller is truly a story of bravery. When she was only 18 months old she fell ill and became both blind and deaf. Her family struggled but did all they could to help their daughter. They eventually found her an educator, Anne Sullivan, who taught Helen words by spelling them on the palm of Helen’s hand.

Helen learned many other ways to communicate (touch-lip reading, Braille, speech and typing), she went to college, wrote 12 books and became a social activist to improve the lives of others. What would seem an insurmountable obstacle, to be both blind and deaf, became Helen Keller’s platform for a remarkable life.

 

Many of Helen Keller’s words can be an encouragement for us who grieve the loss of our child. Our world has been dramatically altered and while we have not necessarily lost our basic senses, we do have much to mourn. Yet, like Helen, we can choose that our circumstances do not defeat us and instead help us become better, stronger, more loving and whole people.

 

Helen Keller – Quotations:

 

•  All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

 

• The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.

 

• 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.

 

• What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

 

• 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.

 

• Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

 

• Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

 

• The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

 

• What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

 

To read more about the story of Helen Keller, please visit:

Helen Adams Keller. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 03:11, Jun 10, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967

Thank you to Brainy Quote for compiling a fabulous list of Helen Keller quotations. Please visit:

Brainy Quote   http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/helen_keller.html