Hellen Keller

Failure to plan ahead on your part does not create an emergency on my part.

The uniform, constant and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition … is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite both of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration … surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.

The problem is not getting rid of fear, but using it properly.

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.

Thinking expansively includes seeing what is possible and making it happen.

See yourself as a work in progress.

Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.

It is in the ordinary events of every day that we develop the proactive capacity to handle the extraordinary pressures of life. It’s how we make and keep commitments, how we handle a traffic jam, how we respond to an irate customer or a disobedient child. It’s how we view our problems and where we focus our energies. It’s the language we use.

When you want to express yourself, a lot of times words can get in the way.

I gave up the guitar in 1965. Didn’t want to see a guitar. I’d go out and get drunk. When I came out of the heart surgery, the doc said, “Promise me you’ll work hard.” I said, “I thought working hard is what got me here.” He said, “No, working is what will keep you alive.”

It’s always good to be underestimated.

People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.

Yes, it’s absolutely true that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly – until you can learn to do it well.

Public behavior is merely private character writ large.

I don’t deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either.