What is worse than having no sight is being able to see but having no vision.
Helen KellerRead
If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Choosing to focus on positivity is essential for personal happiness and well-being.
In this quote, Helen Keller reflects on the importance of maintaining a positive perspective in life. She acknowledges that if she allowed pessimism to dominate her outlook, she would be consumed by despair and isolation. Instead, she views happiness as a responsibility to herself and others, suggesting that cultivating joy is crucial to avoiding a far worse suffering than any physical hardship.
Themes
HappinessOptimismPerspectivePositivityWell-Being
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming adversity, one might say, 'As Helen Keller reminds us, we must consider it our duty to be happy.'
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
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We're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive. It's pretty dense kids who haven't figured that out by the time they're ten.... Most kids can't afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed.
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May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.
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Riches are a cause of evil, not because, of themselves, they do any evil, but because they goad men on to evil.
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Three of my children are medical doctors; they know at least a hundred times as much about your body as my grandfather knew, but they don't know much more about soul than he did.
John TempletonRead