Thursday, June 1, marks the 49th death anniversary of Helen Keller, who was known as the crusader of disabled people. She was also one of the co-founders of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.

Keller was born June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to Arthur H. Keller and Kate Adams Keller. However, by the time she was about 19 months old, she was stricken by an illness that left her blind and deaf.

It was in 1887 when Keller’s teacher and companion Anne Sullivan helped her make drastic progress with her ability to communicate. Sullivan taught Keller to read and write in braille and communicate using hand signals. Keller understood these signals by touch.

Keller did not let her disability hold her back from studying and in 1904 she became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She is credited with several advances in public services to the disabled people and was a known suffragette.

Following are some top Keller quotes, gathered from ThoughtCo, Brainy Quote and American Foundation for the Blind.

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. "

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing."

"It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal."

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

"We can do anything we want if we stick to it long enough."

"The highest result of education is tolerance."

"I cannot but say a word and look my disapproval when I hear that my country is spending millions for war and war engines—more, I have heard, than twice as much as the entire public school system costs the nation."

"I am only one; but still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something. I will not refuse to do something I can do."

"If we do not like our work, and do not try to get happiness out of it, we are a menace to our profession as well as to ourselves."

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

"Security is mostly a superstition. It 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 outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings."

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