Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The only true disability is a crushed spirit
If left to their own devices a child will achieve.
True beauty is when someone radiates that they like themselves.
Adversity is just change that we haven't adapted ourselves to yet.
It's hard enough for women to walk on high heels. And I'm on stilts!
Life is about making your own happiness - and living by your own rules.
The Pentagon isn't a place that champions individuality and innovation.
Sure, I'd love to have children some day. But world domination comes first.
I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me.
In athletics, the idea of possibility is presumed. It's not 'if;' it's 'how.'
A lot of my life is about will - having the will to prove what my body can do.
If you watch any John Hughes film of the eighties, that was my childhood experience.
Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled.
Confidence is the sexiest thing a woman can have. It's much sexier than any body part.
With L'Oreal, I get to be Aimee Mullins, model. No qualifier. And that means everything to me.
I've said this before, but I believe more than ever that confidence is sexier than any body part.
Our responsibility is not simply shielding those we care for from adversity but preparing them to meet it well.
Beauty is not skin-deep; it can be a means of self-affirmation, a true indicator of personality and confidence.
Adversity isn't an obstacle that we need to get around in order to resume living our life. It's part of our life.
It's an objective fact that I am a double amputee, but it's very subjective opinion as to whether that makes me disabled.
I hate the words 'handicapped' and 'disabled'. They imply that you are less than whole. I don't see myself that way at all.
I had a paper round and every night I would put the dinner on before Mum came home from work. I was capable because I had to be.
In sports, I refused to do any interviews that were just going to become human-interest stories. Don't turn me into a tragic heroine.
I'm not running around as a continual ray of sunshine. It's just I don't believe in wasting time feeling sorry for myself. Get over it.
The legs that I have made are far more perfect than the ones nature would have given me - my mother's side of the family have awful legs.
For me, I never ever felt the ownership or any identity with any community of disabilities. I didn't grow up being told that I was a disabled child.
Whether it is your height, your weight or your skin, someone is going to pick on something and make fun of it. My legs were just a more obvious target.
Belief in oneself is incredibly infectious. It generates momentum, the collective force of which far outweighs any kernel of self-doubt that may creep in.
The power of the human will to compete and the drive to excel beyond the body's normal capabilities is most beautifully demonstrated in the arena of sport.
It's factual to say I am a bilateral-below-the-knee amputee. I think it's subjective opinion as to whether or not I am disabled because of that. That's just me.
A couple of years ago, I had my DNA sequencing done, and it is all anonymous. When the results came back, my musculature type said, 'most likely to be a sprinter.'
It's society that disables an individual by not investing in enough creativity to allow for someone to show us the quality that makes them rare and valuable and capable.
People presume my disability has to do with being an amputee, but that's not the case; our insecurities are our disabilities, and I struggle with those as does everyone.
I grew up in a town with a great wrestling tradition. Then I was a team sport queen in high school; I played softball, volleyball, and soccer. Oh, and I also did ski racing.
I like it now when kids stare at me, because it is a way of starting a dialogue. And it is far better than them not looking at you at all. Nothing is worse than not being seen.
We all bullet point our triumphs, but I am who I am because of everything you don't see on my CV. The stuff that doesn't work out teaches you how to trust your instincts and adapt.
The flesh and bone leg is just beautiful. It's elegant. You know, when it's working, it's incredible. But if it's not working, well, you know, your life is certainly far from over.
'Triumph over tragedy' - how pathetic! I think people are generally freaked out that I'm multifaceted. You don't hear people saying, 'Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar - and she's blonde!'
When I'm curious about something, I do it full on and take it as far as I go, but when I feel like I've really explored it, I'm OK with putting it aside and going on to something else.
Giving up is conceding that things will never get better, and that is just not true. Ups and downs are a constant in life, and I've been belted into that roller coaster a thousand times.
An athlete experiences the emotions of pain and elation through triumph and defeat, through teamwork and individuality, as nothing more than a human being...that is the true glory of sport.
When I watch Mad Men and I see the patronising attitudes to women that are so shocking for all of us to watch now, I feel that I've lived and see the same evolution in this regard around disability.
When I watch 'Mad Men' and I see the patronising attitudes to women that are so shocking for all of us to watch now, I feel that I've lived and see the same evolution in this regard around disability.
I like that Pilates compromises the mind and body. It's not just about being able to run around the block a few times. It's about alleviating stress and controlling breathing. It's about being balanced.
I didn't see how wearing prosthetics was quite so different from being born with flaming red hair in a crowd of black-haired babies, or being of a different religion from that of every other child in your area.
Walking the runway with Alexander McQueen, I really had to dig deep. You're with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. I was the first person out on the runway, but I thought, 'I have done the Olympics, I can do this.'
Part of the reason I wanted to model was to push the boundaries and challenge the perceptions of what a beautiful body is supposed to look like. Why should I feel any differently about looking good than anyone else?
I have found great power in taking my 'difference' out for a spin in a very public way. And usually, the worst, most personally embarrassing thing you imagine in your mind is often not anywhere near as bad in real life.
You know, I think there are certain words like 'illegitimate' that should not be used to describe a person. And certainly, we have come far enough in our technology that our language can evolve, because it has an impact.
I didn't want to be written about as a human-interest story. I didn't want to be a passing thing. You know, now we move on to the fat girl who had her stomach stapled. I didn't want to become a gimmick: the disabled model.