Helen Keller
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"Helen Adams Keller" was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblindness/deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama is now a museum and sponsors an annual "Helen Keller Day". Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and was authorized at the federal level by presidential proclamation by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the 100th anniversary of her birth.

A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other similar causes. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971.

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When all you can feel are the shadows, turn your face towards the sun.

Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.

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

When one door of happiness closes, another one opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened to us.

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

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

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

The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or even heard, they must be felt with the heart.

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

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.

Not the senses I have but what I do with them is my kingdom.

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

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I am in, therein to be content.

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.

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.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.

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

When one door of happiness closes another opens; but we often look so long at the closed one that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

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.

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

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

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.

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

Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

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.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

No pessimest ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

I look upon the whole world as my fatherland, and every war has to me the horror of a family fued.

Is there anything worse than being blind? Yes, a man with sight and no vision.

Knowledge is love and light and vision.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

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.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

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

College isn't the place to go for ideas.

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousand of miles and all the years you have lived.

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.

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

Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

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

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

The world is full of suffering but it is also full of people overcoming it.

We would never learn to be patient if there were only joy in the world.

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.

I am only one, still I am one. I can not do everything, still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

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