What is worse than having no sight is being able to see but having no vision.
Helen KellerRead
I have often been asked, Do not people bore you? I do not understand quite what that means. I suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always inopportune. I also dislike people who try to talk down to my understanding. They are like people who when walking with you try to shorten their steps to suit yours; the hypocrisy in both cases is equally exasperating.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Helen Keller expresses her disdain for insincere interactions and the condescension of others.
In this quote, Helen Keller conveys her frustration with superficial social interactions that lack genuine connection. She highlights how insincerity, whether from the curious or those who condescend, feels hypocritical and is deeply exasperating to her, suggesting that meaningful communication requires honesty and respect for one's understanding.
Themes
InsincerityCommunicationAuthenticityRespectUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of authentic communication in relationships.
More from Helen Keller
All quotes →What could be worse than being born without sight? Being born with sight and no vision.
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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.
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Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.
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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.
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It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.
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