What is worse than having no sight is being able to see but having no vision.
Helen KellerRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our understanding of the universe grows with our emotional capacity and perception.
Helen Keller's quote emphasizes that the depth of our experience and understanding of the world around us is tied not only to our intellectual capacity but significantly to our emotional sensitivity. The wonders of the universe are proportionate to our ability to feel and absorb them, suggesting that true realization comes from a heartfelt engagement with life rather than just intellectual observation.
Themes
UniverseWonderVisionFeelingPerception
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about emotional intelligence, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of feeling in understanding complex concepts.
More from Helen Keller
All quotes →What could be worse than being born without sight? Being born with sight and no vision.
Helen KellerRead
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 KellerRead
Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
Helen KellerRead
Our beloved ones have not 'gone to a far country.' It is only the veil of sense that separates them from us, and even that veil grows thin when our thoughts reach out to them.
Helen KellerRead
It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.
Helen KellerRead
Similar quotes
No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
Thomas A. EdisonRead
I was taught you don't tell your secrets to strangers - certainly not secrets that expose error, weakness, failure. My generation, like its predecessors, was taught that since our achievements received little notice or credit from white America, we were not to discuss our faults, lapses, or uncertainties in public.
Margo JeffersonRead
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
John WesleyRead
As my father taught me, and he drove home that point, he said, 'Just remember something. You don't need to tell anybody how good you are. You show them how good you are.' And he drove that home with me. So I learned early not to brag about how good I was or what I could do but let my game take that away and show them that I could play well enough.
Arnold PalmerRead
I'm no fan of Sarkozy, but I support a ban on face veils because they erase women from society and are promoted by an ultra-conservative ideology that equates piety with the disappearance of women.
Mona EltahawyRead