What are your best quotes relating to resilience, hope, community-building, acceptance, children with special needs, or the like?
March 15, 2012 10:20 AM Subscribe
What are your best quotes relating to resilience, hope, community-building, acceptance, children with special needs, or the like?
A family in our community lost loved ones in a recent tragedy, and we're working on a website to raise funds for a community playground built in their honor. We would like to use some of the quotes on the fundraising website, and are on a short time frame.
The playground will be built so that special needs and typically developing children can play together, so it's even better if the quotes are relevant to special needs children. Thanks!
A family in our community lost loved ones in a recent tragedy, and we're working on a website to raise funds for a community playground built in their honor. We would like to use some of the quotes on the fundraising website, and are on a short time frame.
The playground will be built so that special needs and typically developing children can play together, so it's even better if the quotes are relevant to special needs children. Thanks!
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots, the other is wings. --Hodding Carter
posted by Mchelly at 11:44 AM on March 15, 2012
posted by Mchelly at 11:44 AM on March 15, 2012
(Some of these are probably apocryphal.)
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." (Albert Einstein)
"The only way we can be there for our children is to be there for ourselves." (Anonymous)
"You've developed the strength of a draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil ... you are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability." -Lori Borgman
"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it." -Bill Cosby
"The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears." (Ellen Goodman)
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." -- Robert Brault
"Perseverance is not a long race. It is many short races one after another." - W. Elliot
"If you think you can or you think you can't, either way, you'll be right." -Henry Ford
"Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further." -Thomas Carlyle
"Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway!" -John Wayne
"Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace." -Dalai Lama
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." -Franz Peter Schubert
"What lies behind us & what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult times." - Allen Klein
"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter the way you meet them." (Phyllis Bottome)
"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much." (Mother Teresa)
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength." - Christopher Reeves
"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." - Heather Cortez
"Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone."
-- Martina Navratilova
"I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God."
-- Helen Keller
"Every child is gifted. They just unwrap their packages at different times."
-- unknown
"If you're an underdog, mentally disabled, physically disabled, if you don't fit in, if you're not as pretty as the others, you can still be a hero."
-- Steve Guttenberg
"I choose not to place "DIS", in my ability."
"Limitations only go so far."
-- Robert M. Hensel
"The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
-- Scott Hamilton
"Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at de sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground."
-- Zora Neale Hurston
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
-- Albert Einstein
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
-- Mark Twain
"If you have to judge people, judge them based on what they can do, not on what they cannot. Judge them based on who they are, not who they aren't. Otherwise, you're judging based on your own shortcomings."
-- Anonymous
"A mother understands what a child does not say."
-- Jewish proverb
"Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best."
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick
“Handicaps are really to be used another way to benefit yourself and others.”
-- Stevie Wonder
and some more from Helen Keller:
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therein to be content.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”
“Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”
“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.”
“Keep your face to sun shine and you cannot see the shadow.”
“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”
posted by blob at 3:34 PM on March 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." (Albert Einstein)
"The only way we can be there for our children is to be there for ourselves." (Anonymous)
"You've developed the strength of a draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil ... you are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability." -Lori Borgman
"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it." -Bill Cosby
"The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears." (Ellen Goodman)
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." -- Robert Brault
"Perseverance is not a long race. It is many short races one after another." - W. Elliot
"If you think you can or you think you can't, either way, you'll be right." -Henry Ford
"Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see further." -Thomas Carlyle
"Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway!" -John Wayne
"Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace." -Dalai Lama
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." -Franz Peter Schubert
"What lies behind us & what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Children remind us to treasure the smallest of gifts, even in the most difficult times." - Allen Klein
"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter the way you meet them." (Phyllis Bottome)
"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much." (Mother Teresa)
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength." - Christopher Reeves
"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." - Heather Cortez
"Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone."
-- Martina Navratilova
"I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God."
-- Helen Keller
"Every child is gifted. They just unwrap their packages at different times."
-- unknown
"If you're an underdog, mentally disabled, physically disabled, if you don't fit in, if you're not as pretty as the others, you can still be a hero."
-- Steve Guttenberg
"I choose not to place "DIS", in my ability."
"Limitations only go so far."
-- Robert M. Hensel
"The only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
-- Scott Hamilton
"Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at de sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground."
-- Zora Neale Hurston
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
-- Albert Einstein
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
-- Mark Twain
"If you have to judge people, judge them based on what they can do, not on what they cannot. Judge them based on who they are, not who they aren't. Otherwise, you're judging based on your own shortcomings."
-- Anonymous
"A mother understands what a child does not say."
-- Jewish proverb
"Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best."
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick
“Handicaps are really to be used another way to benefit yourself and others.”
-- Stevie Wonder
and some more from Helen Keller:
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therein to be content.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”
“Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”
“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.”
“Keep your face to sun shine and you cannot see the shadow.”
“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
“When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”
posted by blob at 3:34 PM on March 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
Resilience and hope are huge components of the positive psychology movement founded by Marty Seligman so I recommend positive psychology resources as a source of quotations.
"Hope is itself a species of happiness,
and perhaps,
the chief happiness which this world affords."
Samuel Johnson
posted by Ladysin at 2:09 PM on March 16, 2012
"Hope is itself a species of happiness,
and perhaps,
the chief happiness which this world affords."
Samuel Johnson
posted by Ladysin at 2:09 PM on March 16, 2012
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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart." - Helen Keller (I believe!)
"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light." - Helen Keller
"--Placing one foot in front of the other, I've climbed to higher lengths. Reaching beyond my own limitations, to show my inner strength. No obstacle too hard, for this warrior to overcome. I'm just a man on a mission, to prove my disability hasn't won--" - Robert M. Hensel
"In every community there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it." - Marianne Williamson
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." - Nelson Henderson
posted by raintree at 11:28 AM on March 15, 2012 [1 favorite]