70 Helen Keller Quotes on the Wonders of Life and Love

Life is a complex concept to grasp, so let these Helen Keller quotes give you some guiding principles on navigating through it.

Helen Keller lived a meaningful life. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for her, but she managed to power through every challenge given to her.

In fact, she’s the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

She is an icon that reminds people that disabilities are not excuses or reasons for you to remain stagnant.

After all, you can achieve whatever you want to in life if you are determined enough. She was an idealist who understood the power that’s innate in every man.

Optimism and belief in oneself, she believed, are crucial to one’s progress.

So, if you want to learn from this inspiring author, advocate, and activist, then read through the complete list below. We’re sure you’ll find a couple of quotes that’ll hit your heart!

Let’s begin.

And don’t forget to check out these Eleanor Roosevelt quotes.

Best Helen Keller Quotes

1. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

2. “Be happy with what you have while working for what you want.”

3. “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.”

4. “What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.”

5. “All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.”

6. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.”

7. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”

8. “We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.”

9. “A bend in the road is not the end of the road—unless you fail to make the turn.”

10. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

Famous Helen Keller Quotes

11. “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.”

12. “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”

13. “It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.”

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

15. “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”

16. “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”

17. “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.”

18. “Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.”

19. “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.”

20. “I believe humility is a virtue, but I prefer not to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Also read: Famous Quotes, Positive Quotes

Inspiring Helen Keller Quotes

21. “We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.”

22. “When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”

23. “Your success and happiness lie in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”

24. “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.”

25. “Everything has its wonders—even darkness and silence—and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”

26. “I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings.”

Also read: Inspirational Quotes

Helen Keller Quotes About Life

27. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”

28. “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”

29. “Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.”

30. “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.”

31. “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.”

Also read: Mother Teresa Quotes

Helen Keller Quotes About Love

32. “Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.”

33. “Only love can break down the walls that stand between us and our happiness.”

34. “As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.”

Also read: True Love Quotes

Helen Keller Quotes on Friendship

35. “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”

36. “My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways, they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges.”

37. “So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.”

Short Helen Keller Quotes 

38. “Knowledge is love and light and vision.”

39. “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

40. “Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.”

41. “What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.”

42. “God himself is not secure, having given man dominion over his work.”

43. “The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.”

44. “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

45. “Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

Helen Keller Quotes About Happiness

46. “No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.”

47. “The simplest way to be happy is to do good.”

48. “Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within.”

49. “No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.”

50. “I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy, and an objective.”

51. “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.”

52. “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.”

Helen Keller Quotes to Live By

53. “Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them, but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.”

54. “Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world.”

55. “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 joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.”

Helen Keller Quotes That’ll Change Your Worldview

56. “My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.”

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

58. “While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.”

59. “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.”

60. “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.”

Helen Keller Quotes Packed With Insights

61. “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

62. “People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”

63. “There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.”

64. “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.”

65. “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.”

More Helen Keller Quotes to Reflect On

66. “Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.”

67. “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.”

68. “It’s wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.”

69. “There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”

70. “To me, a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.”

Did These Helen Keller Quotes Ignite Your Desire to Make the Most Out of Your Life?

Routine is one of the hardest things to change. Living life the same way over and over might be what some consider safe. But, remember that life is full of action and adventure, and with that, ups and downs as well.

Like Helen Keller, remember that we shouldn’t only endure life. It has so much more to offer in the form of loved ones, friends, and beautiful places you’ve yet to discover. This lesson shows just how optimistic she was, despite her disabilities.

Because of her mindset, she achieved way more than what society expected of her. She touched millions of peoples’ hearts worldwide and served as their inspiration to do their best in their lives, too.

So, like Helen Keller, focus on the good. You’ll slowly shape your future to what you want it to be by directing your thoughts to positive things. Thrive instead of enduring, and live the life you want.

Which of these Helen Keller quotes are your favorites? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Read Next:

Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.