The one resolution, which was in my mind long before it took the form of a resolution, is the key-note of my life. It is this, always to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed upon my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not crush or dwarf my soul, but rather be made to blossom, like Aaron's rod, with flowers.

I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

They took away what should have been my eyes (but I remembered Milton's Paradise). They took away what should have been my ears, (Beethoven came and wiped away my tears) They took away what should have been my tongue, (but I had talked with god when I was young) He would not let them take away my soul, possessing that I still possess the whole.

I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings.

I am thankful that in a troubled world no calamity can prevent the return of spring.

The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.