“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.”
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
This has become attributed to both Walt Whitman and Helen Keller, but has not been found in either of their published works, and variations of the quote are listed as a proverb commonly used in both the US and Canada in A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992), edited by Wolfgang Mieder, Kelsie B. Harder and Stewart A. Kingsbury.
Misattributed
“Walk towards the sunshine, and the shadows will fall behind you.”
Mary Engelbreit (1952) American illustrator
“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
Variant: Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It's what the sunflowers do.
“Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”
J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish writer
As quoted in Christ's Second Coming Fulfilled (1917) by Marion Morris, p. 144
“… They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.”
Zadie Smith book White Teeth
Variant: Because this is the other thing about immigrants: they cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.
Source: White Teeth (2000)
“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
