Paul Polman Quotes

I took my sight and mobility for granted.

I'm also involved in the rights of the disabled and do some fundraising for that and I thought it would have been a big boost for the campaign but it couldn't be worked out.

Growing up for me in the Philippines was hard to read comic books because I'm blind.

I have understood by observing blind people that they are very confident. They don't see themselves as suffering from a disability.

The blind must not only be fed and housed and cared for; they must learn to make thir lives useful to the community.

I typically start out almost every speech I give making some kind of joke about me being in a wheelchair.

To the families of special needs children all across this country I have a message for you: for years you have sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters, and I pledge to you that if we're elected, you will have a friend, an advocate, in The White House.

Of course I read Braille, yes.

Teach [our girls] that there is a race with special needs [Blacks] which they and only they can help; that the world needs and is already asking for their trained, efficient forces.

I have played a mentally challenged person, a quadriplegic - but blind, I realised, is the most difficult because eyes are the most involuntary muscles in our body. Like, our pupils and their dilations are involuntary.

When I was a little boy, there were a lot of children with physical problems in my hometown, and my parents used to work with them, and I learned a lot about that. Since I was a child, helping out, doing what I can, was something that fulfilled me.

I was born blind in Sapangbato in Angeles City.

Special Olympics is an organization I have done a lot of work with, first while growing up in Massachusetts and then as an NBA player in Philadelphia.

I'm very grateful for the platform that I've had in my life to speak out about the things I care about.

I don't know what it's like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy. I don't speak for such huge and diverse groups. What I've tried to do, what I've been fortunate to do, is to live my live and create my life as I've wanted to create it.

I was always interested in working with people with disabilities, and in high school I worked with people who had Down Syndrome. That was for an agency called AHRC, Association for the Help of Retarded Children. Then I went to college, and throughout college I volunteered for AHRC.

I don't want anyone to feel they can't achieve their ambitions if they are dyslexic.

I'm very, very involved in charities involving youth.

We have developed overlays for the keys of the cash registers with the help of the Braille Institute, so that blind crew members can take orders and help our guests.

I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me.

If it was all about me, I'd do a whole lot of pop records, make a whole lot of money, just rake in the dough. But it's never been all about me. It's all about being a voice for the voiceless. People who can't speak for themselves, who don't have a mic, don't have a say.

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.

I am disabled, so I can't travel, and I have not been to any development meetings, but Gary and the others affiliated with the film keep me updated on everything.

A friend of mine has a son who became deaf through meningitis. He called me one spring and asked me to keep a week out of my schedule because he wanted to start a school for deaf kids. I wanted to help.

People couldn't understand why my mama would have this blind kid out doing things like cutting wood for the fire. But her thing was: He may be blind, but he ain't stupid.