We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
True, I cannot see the stars scattered like gold-dust in the heavens, but other stars just as bright shine in my soul.
I do not know the meaning of the darkness, but I have learned the overcoming of it.
I am heir of all the ages - heir of their wealth of thought and high endeavor.
What a strange life I lead - a kind of Cinderella-Life - half glitter in crystal shoes, half mice and cinders! But it is a wonderful life all the same.
...I have always observed that those who express surprise at my enjoyment of life are those who use their senses imperfectly.
When we complain of having to do the same thing over and over, let us remember that God does not send new trees, strange flowers and different grasses every year. When the spring winds blow, they blow in the same way. In the same places the same dear blossoms lift up the same sweet faces, yet they never weary us. When it rains, it rains as it always has. Even so would the same tasks which fill our daily lives out on new meanings if we wrought them in the spirit of renewal from within - a spirit of growth and beauty.
Character is like the fire within the flint - latent until it is struck out of the stone. Obeserving the flint stone, who would think it contained the possibility of light? And so it is with the dark experiences of life. When they are met with courage, they give out sparks of spiritual light.
If we do not like our work, and do not try to get happiness out of it, we are a menace to our profession as well as to ourselves.
Some people are foolish enough to imagine that wealth, power, and fame satisfy our hearts: but they never do, unless they are used to create and distribute happiness in the world.
Analysis is as destructive of emotion as of the flower which the botanist pulls to pieces.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart.
It is not required of every man and woman to do or be something great. Most of us have to be content to take small part in the drama of life.
If we don't make the most of ourselves, how can we expect to be made much of by others?
What Induces a child to learn but his delight in knowing?
There are no such things as divine, immutable or inalienable rights. Rights are things we get when we are strong enough to make good our claim to them.
Only in quietness do we pssess our own minds and discover the resources of the Inner Life.
He who is content with what has been done is an obstacle in the path of progress.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.
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.
I believe that misfortunes are often the keys which open doors of higher truth for us.
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.
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
Because I cannot see or hear, the thoughtless suppose life must be blank to me. They do not understand that things have other precious values beside color and sound. It never occurs to them to FEEL a flower, and they do not know what they miss - the exquisite shape of a leaf and stem and bud. I do not suppose light suggests to them the radiating life-giving warmth of the sun. True, I cannot see the stars scattered like gold-dust in the heavens, but other stars just as bright shine in my soul.
The most beautiful world is always entered through imagination.
We differ, blind and seeing, not in the nature of our handicap, but in the understanding and idealism we put into the art of living. It is only when we put imagination and feeling behind the senses that they attain their full value.
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.
Happiness is a state of mind, and depends very little on outward circumstances.
Cultivate love, for love is the light that gives the eye to see great and noble things.
Unless we can help the world where we are, we could not help it if we were somewhere else.
God has given each of one of us a task, which we can perform better than anyone else. We must find out what that task is, and how to do it in the best way possible.
It seemed more strange than ever that death should cause fear when one is endowed with the power mentally to survey such a supremely magnificent universe evolving out of chaos! Since each galaxy discovered is another proof of change, why cannot death be life in another form?
What do I consider a teacher should be? One who breathes life into knowledge so that it takes new form in progress and civilization.
The world needs more of this dauntless spirit of laughter. Laughter is more disconcerting than a whole dictionary of abuse.
Many people never stop to think what life means. They hurry and scurry, they run to and fro upon the earth, exploring the paths that lead nowhere. They waste their energies in futile attempts that gain nothing. It is as if they tried to lift themselves up by their wastebands or to walk on their heads. Not until fate, or Destiny, or some other fellow knocks them out, do they learn to look within themselves for happiness.
It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only spend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
Peace and prosperity will come when we realize, and incorporate into our lives the truth that we live by each other and for each other and not unto ourselves.
Every one of us is blind and deaf until our eyes are opened to our fellowmen, until our ears hear the voice of humanity.
It is no true optimism to declare the world is a good world when it is not. It is for us rather to insist that it shall be made good, and exert ourselves to bring it out.
The worst sorrows in life are not its losses and misfortunes, but its fears
When the mind bends gladly to a task, and the hand has to keep up with the eager spirit, one feels in tune with the universe, and misfortune loses its sting.
Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in the world.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.