Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it ~ Hellen Keller

The name Helen Keller may not ring a bell today, but she deserves to be “rediscovered”, for Helen is the epitome of how a person can make a difference to herself and the world. To those who know her story, she was the inspiration for how to overcome life’s imponderables and make the impossible possible. Generations looked up to her as a role model.

Helen Keller was born on June 27 in 1880 in Alabama. Although she was born healthy, she lost her eyesight and hearing ability before she was two due to an illness. It was her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who changed Helen’s life by breaking the barriers the lack of language had imposed on her. With Anne’s help, young Helen learned the fingertip alphabet and by the age of 10, she mastered Braille and the alphabet, and even learnt to write and use a typewriter. At 16 she made it to school and in 1904 she graduated from Radcliffe College, creating history as the first deaf-blind person to do so.

Empowered by the written word, Helen went on to dedicate her life to changing the conditions of people who were visually challenged and had hearing impairment. She became the face of those who could not see or hear. She became a lecturer, a political activist and an author. Her works include several articles and twelve published books such as The Story of My Life (1903) and The World I Live In (1908). Miss Keller makes it clear in one of her books (My Religion) that she is an ardent believer in the New Church, or Swendenborgianism, a Christian denomination influenced by the writings of the Swedish scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), and that she looks upon Swedenborg’s writings as being supplementary to and an explanation and enlargement of the Bible.

Despite her physical disabilities, Ms Keller was active in public service. She joined the Social Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, and campaigned for women’s suffrage, labour rights, socialism and other such causes, all of which turned her into a role model not only for women but also those who suffer major illnesses that could despair even the strongest. Keller showed that nothing was impossible as long as there is the will to overcome and thrive.

Today’s post honors this remarkable woman who was a “humanitarian to the world” by recalling some of her most famous quotes, words that continue to inspire the downhearted to this day.

The Words of Helen Keller

On Overcoming Suffering

“The struggle which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women. It lets us into the soul of things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”

“Once I knew only darkness and stillness… my life was without past or future… but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.”

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

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On her Faith

“Here was a faith that emphasized what I felt so keenly — the separateness between soul and body, between a realm I could picture as a whole and the chaos of fragmentary things and limited physical senses met at every turn . . . As I realized the meaning of what I read, my soul seemed to expand and gain confidence amid the difficulties which beset me. . . . Gradually I came to see that I could use the Bible, which had so baffled me, as an instrument for digging out precious truths, just as I could use my hindered, halting body for the high behests of my spirit …I took more and more to the New Church doctrines as my religion. They have lifted my wistful longing for a fuller sense of life into a vivid consciousness of the complete being within me.”

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On Living Life’s Possibilities

“Each day comes to me with both hands full of possibilities, and in its brief course I discern all the varieties and realities of my existence, the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the spirit of beauty.”

“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

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On Happiness and Contentment

“True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.”