Customer Reviews

To Love This Life, Quotations by Helen Keller

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Helen Adams Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880. A sudden illness at the age of 19 months quickly wiped out her ability to communicate and relate to the world around her as she suddenly found herself deaf and blind. Her world closed in around her and she was unable to relay to the world her inner feelings, to learn, and speak to it until "Teacher," Annie Sullivan, came into her life. She soon began to blossom and her "words" began to flow nonstop until her death almost a decade later.

In this book we can read those "words of wisdom, courage, and inspiration from a woman who above all wanted to make a difference in the lives of her fellow men and women and whose remarkable personality is reflected in this new and memorable collection of quotations." The foreward is by Jimmy Carter and the Preface is penned by Keller Johnson-Thompson, Helen's great-great-nephew, and followed by a chronology of her life. The quotations in this small volume are thematic: This Life, The Senses, Faith, Happiness, Friendship and Love, Life and Living, Education, Books and Literature, Nature, Women in Society, Human Nature, War and Peace, Changing the World, People and Events, and Triumph over Adversity.

"Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. . . . Hear the music of voices, the song of the bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of the flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facts of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you." --- "Three Days to See," Atlantic Monthly, January 1933

This small book, spoken from the heart of the eternal "symbol of strength," Helen Keller, will warm and inspire the reader. There are several black and white photographs interspersed throughout the book that mesh with the series of quotations. For example, under the section of quotations for the section "Friendship and Love," we find her with the inimitable Annie Sullivan in a loving portrait. Some of the "quotations" embrace more than a simple line or two and are snippets from actual letters. One such letter discusses her thoughts on the Warsaw Ghetto in a letter written to Jo Davidson in 1947. This beautiful book is one that shows many facets of Helen Keller and will be cherished by the reader for many years to come.

This book is pretty good. It has a lot of powerful quotes that really help you if you have a trying week/life. Helen Keller was an astounding woman, and reading her words will definitely change your perceptions of her, as well as others society perceived as "different" or "disabled."If you like this book, I recommend To Live, To Think, To Hope - Inspirational Quotes by Helen Keller - it's a little cheaper, and has more information on Helen's actual life aside from her quotes, but they are both great.