Inspirations and Quotes

Because we can all use a few inspiring words now and again, or at least the knowledge that we are not in this alone.


The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
-- Scott Hamilton (award winning figure skater, diagnosed as a child with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome)


"It is a lonely existence to be a child with a disability which no-one can see or understand, you exasperate your teachers, you disappoint your parents, and worst of all you know that you are not just stupid."
-- Susan Hampshire (an English actress best known for her many television and film roles, diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult)


We, the one's who are challenged, need to be heard. To be seen not as a disability, but as a person who has, and will continue to bloom. To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact human being.
-- Robert M. Hensel (born with the birth defect known as Spina bifida, Hensel set the Guinness World Records for the longest non-stop wheelie in a wheelchair (6.178 miles))


The message I'll share...is that inclusion is extremely important for kids with and without disabilities.
-- Clay Aiken (American Idol finalist, award winning musical artist, special educator, co-founder of the Bubel/Aiken Foundation and 2007 National Center for Learning Disabilities' Children's Advocacy Award)


Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
-- Martina Navratilova (former World No. 1 women's tennis player)


Being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having access to every aspect of life.
-- Emma Thompson (actress, environmental advocate)


Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater.
- - Albert Einstein (German-born theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity)


Recognizing and respecting differences in others, and treating everyone like you want them to treat you, will help make our world a better place for everyone. Care... be your best. You don't have to be handicapped to be different. Everyone is different!
--Kim Peek ( inspiration for the motion picture Rain Man)


Fall seven times; stand up eight.
-- Japanese proverb

A community that excludes even one of its members is no community at all.
--Dan Wilkins ( poet and motivational speaker)

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.
--Helen Keller ( American author, political activist and lecturer; the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree)

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
--Henry Van Dyke (author and composer)

You cannot be responsible for your own family without being responsible for the society and the environment in which they live.
--Justin Dart (disability rights leader, 1930-2002)

A young woman once asked a very old woman, "What is life's heaviest burden?"
The old woman replied, "To have nothing to carry."
-- old Jewish tale

I have missed more than 9000 shots. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot--and I missed. I have failed over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed.
-- Michael Jordan (Award winning and world famous basketball player)

“If a man does his best what else is there?”
--George Patton (U.S. Army General)

Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Don't sell out.
-- Christopher Reeve (American actor, disability advocate; Reeve was paralyzed in an accident and was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life)

… if I have a bad day, it's all over. It's always because of my disability. "Oh, that poor girl, she's upset because she has a disability" and I'll say, "No, I'm upset because my boyfriend left me." "Oh, because he couldn't deal with the disability?" "No, because I slept with his best friend".."Oh, you slept with his best friend because you were feeling bad because you have a disability.”
--Ellen Stohl ( Injured in a car crash that left her a paraplegic, Ellen Stohl works as a motivational speaker. She was also the first playboy playmate with a disability)

"It means people on crutches and in a wheelchair can do anything."
--Hannah McFadden (age 4, at the dedication of a stature showing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the wheelchair he used during his entire term in the White House)

"Disability is natural. We must stop believing that disabilities keep a person from doing something. Because that's not true . . . Having a disability doesn't stop me from doing anything."
--Benjamin Snow (Grade 8, Woodland Park, Colorado, in an essay entitled "Attitudes About People with Disabilities")

"I want to prove that handicapped people are not dumb or stupid, like some people think we are."
--Willis Radabaugh (48, of Ohio who received his GED decades after he was banned from regular high school because he has cerebral palsy)

I treat all children the same. I don't consider their disability an excuse, but, rather, a point of motivation. ... When you enter my classroom you no longer see children with special needs, but a teacher who meets the needs of special children.
--Anita Ramirez (teacher)

I'm very learning-disabled, and I think it drove me to what I'm doing.
--Chuck Close (American painter and photographer. Though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work which remains sought after by museums and collectors.)