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 heart-throbs 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.

There is beauty in everything, even in silence and darkness.

Optimism, then, is a fact within my own heart. But as I look out upon life, my heart meets no contradiction. The outward world justifies my inward universe of good.

I, who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine.

The few who profit from the labor of the masses want to organize the workers into an army which will protect the interests of the capitalists.

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.

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world--the company of those who have known suffering.