But a somewhat more liberal and sympathetic examination of mankind will convince us that the cross is even older than the gibbet, that voluntary suffering was before and independent of compulsory; and in short that in most important matters a man has always been free to ruin himself if he chose.

—Helen Keller

About Helen Keller

Portrait of Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American deafblind author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer.

More quotations from Helen Keller

I have found that it don't really matter if you're brought up fine or rough, but that it helps to have someone to spill your sorrows to.

—Helen Keller

Be entirely tolerant or not at all; follow the good path or the evil one. To stand at the crossroads requires more strength than you possess.

—Helen Keller

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security 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 exposure.

—Helen Keller

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.… Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

—Helen Keller

Getting fired is nature's way to telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.

—Helen Keller

More quotations tagged with “suffering”

I have found that it don't really matter if you're brought up fine or rough, but that it helps to have someone to spill your sorrows to.

—Helen Keller

I felt despair. Though it seems to me now there's two kinds of it: the sort that causes a person to surrender and then the sort I had which made me take risks and make plans.

—G. K. Chesterton

Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.

—Edgar Allan Poe

But penance need not be paid in suffering… It can be paid in forward motion. Correcting the mistake is a positive move, a nurturing move.

—Barbara Hall

To perceive is to suffer.

History

11 Jul 2015 Added