Tribute to Helen Keller… in her own words

A world-famous author, Keller was also a trailblazer in disability rights, a political activist and lecturer who became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Born on 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama to parents Arthur and Kate Keller, she was raised on the family owned cotton plantation farm.

When Helen was 19 months old she developed an unknown illness that left her both deaf and blind. Modern medical professionals believe rubella, scarlet fever, encephalitis or meningitis to have been the cause. It proved difficult for Keller to communicate and she would often throw tantrums out of sheer frustration.

Keller found joy playing with her younger siblings and farm animals, but her parents knew they had to address their daughter's new sense of isolation. They met with Alexander Graham Bell who worked with deaf children and the Perkins Institute for the Blind sent a recent graduate Anne Sullivan to work with Keller at home. Sullivan was a caring and devoted teacher who became not only Helen's teacher, but friend for almost 50 years.

Keller could read Braille and use a typewriter by the age of 10 and learnt to touch other people's throats and mouths when they talked to feel the movements and sound vibrations. Attending special schools, she also learned to read German, French, Greek and Latin.

Her inspirational story saw her meet many influential people and became quite famous. Oil executive Henry Rogers helped fund her education and with Sullivan's help as her interpreter, she became the first deaf-blind person to earn a degree in 1904.   While Keller was at college she also wrote her famous autobiography 'The Story of My Life', which was translated into an incredible 50 languages.

Following her college days, Keller devoted her time to raising awareness for people with disabilities. She co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920 and in doing so became an advocate of women's rights. Keller raised funds and awareness for disability charities, offered solace and hope to disabled soldiers during the war and travelled the world as a lecturer discussing the rights of blind and deaf people.

Helen Keller spent her final years at her home in Connecticut where she died peacefully in her sleep on 1st June 1968, aged 87.   Helen Keller triumphed over her adversity to lead a unique and remarkable life. To honour her self-belief and tenacity we have collated her most hopeful and inspiring quotes to help you move forward no matter what life throws at you.

Inspirational

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

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

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."

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

"Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained."

"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."

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

"To keep on trying in spite of disappointment and failure is the only way to keep young and brave. Failures become victories if they make us wise-hearted."

Friendship

"I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light."

"My friends have made the story of my life."

"True friends never apart maybe in distance but never in heart"

Teaching

"True teaching cannot be learned from text-books any more than a surgeon can acquire his skill by reading about surgery."

"A person who is severely impaired never knows his hidden sources of strength until he is treated like a normal human being and encouraged to shape his own life."

"Trying to write is very much like trying to put a Chinese puzzle together. We have a pattern in mind which we wish to work out in words; but the words will not fit the spaces, or, if they do, they will not match the design."

"Education should train the child to use his brains, to make for himself a place in the world and maintain his rights even when it seems that society would shove him into the scrap-heap."

"When one reads hurriedly and nervously, having in mind written tests and examinations, one's brain becomes encumbered with a lot of bric-a-brac for which there seems to be little use."

"Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart."

"Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand."   Motivational   "One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."

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

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

"A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn."

"While they were saying it couldn't be done, it was done."

Character

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved."

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

"Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within"

"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."   "The true test of a character is to face hard conditions with the determination to make them better."

"We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others." Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves - and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either."

Faith

"Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see."

"I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of a flower - the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence."

"There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark."

Emotions

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart"    "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."

Optimism

"Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere, and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost."

"There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness."

"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content"   "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement "

"I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring."

"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

By Kirsten Jakubenko

Sources:

• https://www.keepinspiring.me/helen-keller-quotes/
• https://www.perkins.org/seven-fascinating-facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-helen-keller/
• https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/helen-keller