Douglas Bader Quotes

I've had, you know, my leg chopped off.

I had a wreck during a race in Michigan, which led to the hyperextension of my left leg and subsequent amputation.

You see a guy with one leg, he's got a story. "Land mine '69." You see a guy with one arm, he's got a story, too. "Snow blower, bottle of whiskey." You see a guy with one tooth, what would the story be? "Well, uh, I like a lot of taffy."

Janie’s hip buzzes again. Maybe she'll have to have her whole leg amputated, she thinks sadly. That would really suck.

I have been wounded altogether twenty times; eleven of these wounds were received at Northfield.

I began to speak well at a very advanced age - 15, 16, 17 years old. It was psychological: the trauma of war, my family and growing up on my own. I was more or less a street kid.

The last thing I ever thought would ever happen to me was losing my legs.

I had hope, however; I had been wounded seven times during the war, and once before in this same lung; and I did not believe I was going to die.

I was helping my mom grind meat at our butcher shop, and it just hypnotized me. I don't remember sticking my hand in, but it sheared off the three middle fingers and left me with a pinkie and a thumb.

It was like falling off a building and suddenly, bang, you hit the bottom. The first time it happened was on an ordinary day at home. I was taking down some curtains. I took one step, turned around, took another step and then I fell and hit my head hard on the rowing machine.

There was not a lot of great Civil War literature written by people who participated in it. It was too traumatic.

I am short a cheekbone and an ear but am able to whip all hell yet.

Vietnam was my nightmare for a good ten years.

My hand landed on a rock, and the gnome landed on it, squashing my thumb between the rock and the gnome. Basically, it was crushed and took the end of my thumb off. I just looked at my hand, and the first thought that flashed into my mind was, 'How on earth am I going to make my devil horn sign now? That's my trademark!'

I was on Saipan when I got hit. Not too bad, but bad enough to hamper me if I stayed. I was hit in my left buttocks just below the belt line.

I could see hunks of metal and rocks sticking out of my legs.

When I was very young, my father had an accident. He fell down a flight of stairs, fractured his skull, and lost sight in one eye.

This is going to sound really crude, but I lost my fingers in a meat grinder.

I ended up winning a silver medal at the Summer X Games Adaptive Supercross seven months after my injury - on a leg that I built.

I went to pick my son up from school and walked him back and was in the house preparing dinner, and he came in the house and gave me this flower of chrysanthemum that was full of ants. And he went back out to play and ran out into the street and got hit by a car. The car happened to be driven by a LAPD detective.

The worst thing that happened to me as a child was seeing my brother get pushed into a cement mixer.

It's not until after you've been hit by a car and landed all right that the fear kicks in.

Ten years ago, I went to visit my dad in Australia. I walked to the edge of a cliff and looked over and tripped. I righted myself but my head was over the edge. No one saw it.

I can't really say I miss my toes.

I left football, and overnight, I couldn't walk. I wet the bed even though the bathroom was only three meters away. It was 4 A.M., and I knew if I stood, my ankle would kill me.