David M. Oshinsky Quotes

There are many role models I've been around, and kind of the biggest one - there's a show called 'Push Girls,' with all women in wheelchairs, and they're all really good friends of mine. And one, Angela Rockwood, is still modeling, in a wheelchair. After a car accident.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

I never in a million years thought I would be able to be a Paralympic athlete.

My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Women's Singles tennis champion in college.

No man who has brought himself back from what might have been an entire life of invalidism to strength, and activity, physical and mental and spiritual can ever be accused of preaching or exemplifying a mollycoddle philosophy.

The image of Stephen Hawking - who has died aged 76 - in his motorised wheelchair, with head contorted slightly to one side and hands crossed over to work the controls, caught the public imagination as a true symbol of the triumph of mind over matter.

I've had an ongoing fantasy about being interviewed on, like, a '60 Minutes'-type show about this really inspiring woman that can do anything with a fake leg. And then the camera pans out, and I'm just holding a mannequin leg.

Growing up, I didn't have any role models that were sick that were doing anything with their life, ever.

I think one in five Americans has a disability of some sort. That's 20% of the population, and yet we rarely ever see people with disabilities on-screen, and their stories and their resilience and their zest for life and their humor and their humanity.

I've met quadriplegics who have lost the use of their limbs but not their spirit. They are not dark, defeated people.

When I first had my legs amputated, it was hard for me to be positive and feel pretty. Many people don't know that someone with a disability can be strong and beautiful and successful as an athlete.

I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. There is only one way to go in life and that is forward.

Winning gold and three silver medals at the Paralympic games is something I'll never forget, but I knew deep down there was still more work to do. I had to continue to redefine what was possible and get back everything that was taken away from me.

My parents never ceased to struggle, but in witnessing their lives, I learned more about natural industry and leadership than in any classroom.

Outside of my family, I was always inspired by true heroic stories of leadership and survival. For example, the story of the Shackleton expedition, when their ship became lodged in the Antarctic ice pack while exploring.

I'm the manager of Cardiff City Football Club, and I'm not to lay down and feel sorry for myself.

Being that beacon of hope; not just people in Ghana, but any kind of people that have gone through the struggle, I take a lot of light of being that beacon of hope and inspiration for anybody that wants to achieve anything.

When my doctors said I would never walk, I didn't believe them. I knew I wasn't meant to spend my life in a chair.

I was very weak in my childhood, and arthritis took a toll on me. But my parents did everything in their might to help me recover. Slowly, I started recovering from the illness, and I made a pact with myself that I would not let my past dwell on my future.

People know Joe Biden. They've seen the strong parts of his character and how resilient he is.

My dad never quit no matter what. He couldn't see, but he never let that stop him. Most people, when something like that happens, they just think their life is over. But that's not true. My dad can still do things like a normal person. He still cooks; he still watches my sister and my brother's baby when my mom's not home.

The one thing I learned early on as a football player is people have their opinions, and I can't change them. But I can show them what they're missing.

If I missed a game, that meant I was losing the battle. I'm not going to let leukemia affect me.

I always felt really lucky that I only lost my legs, because it could've been so much worse.

The question I asked when I woke up was not how am I going to live without legs - but how am I going to do all the things I want to do without legs? There was no doubt that I was going to do them, I was just curious to find out how - but I knew I was going to find a way.