I love to study the lives of people – to plunge into their stories, quotes, thoughts and beliefs. In a way it allows part of them to live amongst me here and now – to walk the earth yet again, to educate and enlighten me with their wisdom. So many people simply had too much brilliance to confine to just one lifetime.
Helen Keller was just such a person and is one of my favorite people to walk with and learn from. Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, Anne Frank, Booker T. Washington, John Milton, Harriet Tubman, Calvin Coolidge, Dorothy Parker, Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt – all great travelling companions as well.
Helen Keller has always been particularly inspiring to me. Her mind was an absolute marvel! She had more to handle than one person should ever have to handle, yet she remained full of hope and sought to be an encouragement to others. She endured more as an innocent girl than the vilest killers do in prison. Yet self-fulfillment came through her writings as opposed to self-pity.
This amazing lady could squeeze an education into a single eloquent sentence. Below are a few of my favortie lessons:
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.”
“Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.”
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”
“Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
“The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.”
There are SO many more, but that’s enough to digest for now. In the coming days, I’ll be using more of her quotes to launch posts. I never grow tired of the workings of her mind and forever hope that my own will benefit from the company.
Make each moment count double,
~Joi
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