100+ Inspirational Disability Quotes to Empower and Uplift

"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties."

- Helen Keller

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

- Christopher Reeve

"However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at."

- Stephen Hawking

"My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically."

- Stephen Hawking

"The measure of a man, or woman, is not so much what they have accomplished, though that has weight. It often is much more though what that man or woman has overcome to accomplish what they have."

- Leif Gregersen

"I do not have a disability, I have a gift! Others may see it as a disability, but I see it as a challenge. This challenge is a gift because I have to become stronger to get around it, and smarter to figure out how to use it; others should be so lucky."

- Shane E. Bryan

"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

"I choose not to place ‘DIS’, in my ability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more."

- Robert M. Hensel

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

- Martina Navratilova

"Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

- Lou Holtz

"Know your limits, but never stop trying to break them."

- Kyle Maynard

"The only disability in life is a bad attitude."

- Scott Hamilton

"Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it."

- Michael J. Fox

"Disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does"

- Stella Young

"I don’t need easy. I just need possible."

- Bethany Hamilton

"We, the ones 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 Hensel

"I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten- my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!"

- Helen Keller

"The worst disability in life is a bad attitude."

- SupaNova Slom

"It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven’t done badly. People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining."

- Stephen Hawking

"One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered."

- Michael J. Fox

"Hold my hand and walk with me. We must break the back of social inequity; We must empower every individual with a disability To live with dignity in an inclusive society."

- William E. Lightbourne

"I have a Disability yes that’s true, but all that really means is I may have to take a slightly different path than you."

- Robert M. Hensel

"We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world."

- Helen Keller

"As a disabled man, let my life be a reflection of the endless amount of ability that exists in each and everyone of us."

- Robert M. Hensel

"I don’t have a dis-ability, I have a different-ability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"The biggest barriers I’ve faced have been from people who make assumptions about what I can’t do, who assume that because I’m in a wheelchair I can’t be an athlete or I won’t be competitive. That’s ok because I’m focused, single-minded and good at blocking those people."

- Tanni Grey-Thompson

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."

- Nibo Qubein

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."

- Helen Keller

"I want people like me to see that they shouldn’t let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness—I want to turn my disability into ability."

- Susan Boyle

"I don't need easy. I just need possible."

- Bethany Hamilton

"My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn’t accessible."

- Stella Young

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye."

- Helen Keller

"When you hear the word ‘disabled,’ people immediately think about people who can’t walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted. Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can’t find joy in life and are bitter."

- Teri Garr

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

- Christopher Reeve

"It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

- Muhammad Ali

"I’m officially disabled, but I’m truly enabled because of my lack of limbs. My unique challenges have opened up unique opportunities to reach so many in need."

- Nick Vujicic

"Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it."

- Kevyn Aucoin

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

- Helen Keller

"I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn’t let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness – I want to turn my disability into ability."

- Susan Boyle

"Abled does not mean enabled. Disabled does not mean less abled."

- Khang Kijarro Nguyen

"Every person with disability is an individual"

- Itzhak Perlman

"I wish for a world that views disability, mental or physical, not as a hindrance but as unique attributes that can be seen as powerful assets if given the right opportunities"

- Oliver Sacks

"We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability."

- Stevie Wonder

"Accessibility allows us to tap into everyone’s potential."

- Debra Ruh

"Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me."

- Marlee Matlin

"My effort in the whole thing was the basic determination, the burning desire in me to prove to this world that a physically handicapped girl is in no way inferior."

- Sudha Chandran

"I wanna see a feisty group of disabled people around the world…if you don’t respect yourself and if you don’t demand what you believe in for yourself, you’re not gonna get it."

- Judith Heumann

"We have the can-do factor, and us doing what we do inspires people to just try that little bit harder, whether they are able-bodied or disabled."

- Lee Pearson

"This is my life and I absolutely love it. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve done things that other people couldn’t dream of."

- Jonnie Peacock

"Disability cannot stop me from becoming a complete personality"

- Samyak Lalit

"Know me for my abilities, not my disability."

- Robert M. Hensel

"If the world thinks you’re not good enough, it’s a lie, you know. Get a second opinion."

- Nick Vujicic

"I am different, not less."

- Temple Grandin

"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

- Frida Kahlo

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."

- Edward Everett Hale

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

- Muhammad Ali

"When you focus on someone’s disability you’ll overlook their abilities, beauty and uniqueness. Once you learn to accept and love them for who they are, you subconsciously learn to love yourself unconditionally."

- Yvonne Pierre

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway."

- Mary Kay Ash

"Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision."

- Stevie Wonder

"We must be treated as equals – and communication is the way we can bring this about."

- Louis Braille

"The ADA was a wonderful achievement. But it was only the tip of the iceberg. You can pass a law but until you can change society’s attitudes, that law won’t mean much."

- Denise Sherer Jacobson

"Part of the problem is that we tend to think that equality is about treating everyone the same, when it’s not. It’s about fairness. It’s about equity of access."

- Judith Heumann

"It is so important to showcase people with disabilities with intersectional identities because that allows viewers to see beyond disability….People with disabilities are multilayered—we are complex breathing human beings defined by more than just what we lack."

- Lauren Ridloff

"My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn’t accessible"

- Stella Young

"I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

- Jimmy Dean

"Whether someone is useful only matters if you value people by their use."

- Corinne Duyvis

"Ask many of us who are disabled what we would like in life and you would be surprised how few would say, ‘Not to be disabled.’ We accept our limitations."

- Itzhak Perlman

"If we are to achieve a richer culture, we must weave one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place."

- Margaret Meade

"If I have to feel thankful about an accessible bathroom, when am I ever gonna be equal in the community?"

- Judith Heumann

"Everything is going to work out – there’s no other option."

- Kari Miller

"The world worries about disability more than disabled people do"

- Warwick Davis

"There is a plan and a purpose, a value to every life, no matter what its location, age, gender or disability"

- Sharron Angle

"Some would look at Emily’s life and think that a child born with Down’s syndrome has little hope for a meaningful life. Throw in the diagnosis of leukemia and that little hope turns into no hope whatsoever. I disagree. Emily’s life, with all its imperfections, had great meaning. Because of how many people she touched, I realize that we are far more than what we can accomplish. We are the very thumbprints of God."

- Matt Patterson

"In life, just find something you love and make it your life. That is the only way to be successful. Love what you do."

- Hannah Cockcroft

"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

"The world worries about disability more than disabled people do."

- Warwick Davis

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

- Confucius

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision."

- Helen Keller

"We must be treated as equals—and communication is the way we can bring this about."

- Louis Braille

"We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

- Albert Einstein

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

- Mark Twain

"The world has a fast-growing problematic disability, which forges bonds in families, causes people to communicate in direct and clear ways, cuts down meaningless social interaction, pushes people to the limit with learning about themselves, whilst making them work together to make a better world. It’s called Autism – and I can’t see anything wrong with it, can you? Boy I’m glad I also have this disability!"

- Patrick Jasper Lee

"I can see there’s a connection between not following normal thinking and doing creative thinking. I wouldn’t have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally."

- John Forbes Nash, Jr.

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you."

- Walt Whitman

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I wanted to be part of the world, but I didn’t see anyone like me in it."

- Jim LeBrecht

"Life is all about balance. Since I have only one leg, I understand that well."

- Sandy Fussell

"Hard things are put in our way, not to stop us, but to call out our courage and strength."