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
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.
In practice
In a lecture about emotional intelligence, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of feeling in understanding complex concepts.
What is worse than having no sight is being able to see but having no vision.
What could be worse than being born without sight? Being born with sight and no vision.
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.
Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
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.
It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.
If you really want to know what's happening here and now, you've got to use your own eyes and your own judgment.
The deepest lessons come out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires.
Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.
Presumption must be quenched even more than a fire.
The others in the dorm thought I wanted to be a writer, because I was always alone with a book, but I had no such ambition. There was nothing I wanted to be.
Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. It is a lovely surging.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.