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.
We may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.
My darkness has been filled with the light of intelligence, and behold, the outer day-lit world was stumbling and groping in social blindness.
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.
College isn't the place to go for ideas.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
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.
When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.
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 best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
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 heartthrobs 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.
Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others
Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.
Museums and art stores are also sources of pleasure and inspiration. Doubtless it will seem strange to many that the hand unaided by sight can feel action, sentiment, beauty in the cold marble; and yet it is true that I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. As my finger tips trace line and curve, they discover the thought and emotion which the artist has portrayed.
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.
When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us.
I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
The best way out is always through.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
I sometimes wonder if the hand is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye. I should think the wonderful rhythmical flow of lines and curves could be more subtly felt than seen. Be this as it may, I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks in their marble gods and goddesses.
God himself is not secure, having given man dominion over his work.
As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.
Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived.
Not the senses I have but what I do with them is my kingdom.
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
The welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
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.
Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
The highest result of education is tolerance.
It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.
It is not possible for civilization to flow backwards while there is youth in the world. Youth may be headstrong, but it will advance it allotted length.