disabled-people

"The Deaf theme in my work relates to my own experience as a deaf human being; my genre is De'VIA."

"Deaf art expresses the values of Deaf culture — the beauty of sign language and its painful oppression, the joys of Deaf bonding, communication breakdowns between signers and non-signers, the discovery of language and community, and the history of Deaf people."

"I no longer paint what people would like to see. I paint for myself. It is about my own experience, my love of ASL and pride in our Deaf heritage. I sometimes create works that have no particular relation to the Deaf."

"Persons with disabilities are usually portrayed as being feeble and asking for handouts, in the media. I want to change that perception. We have weaknesses and strengths like everybody else and it’s about time the focus moved from what we can’t do to what we CAN do."

"I didn’t set out to impact anybody. I set out to prove to myself and to society that I could be a successful software developer despite having a neurological condition."

"If you don’t have a passion for your product and you want to become an entrepreneur because of the money, close up your business and look for a well-paying job."

"The frustrations and disappointments that come with entrepreneurship can break you, but if you are in it because you want to make a difference or you believe in what you are producing, then that spurs you on."

"There is a lot of potential for fintech in this part of the world."

"All my life I’ve been told to remove the word ‘I can’t’ from my vocabulary and replace it with ‘I’ll try’ and by grace, everything I’ve tried I’ve been successful at."

"“People with disability don’t want preferential treatment we want the playing ground to be given so we can compete as competitively as anybody else.”"

"Ironic that the largest minority group which cuts across race, religion and sexual orientation is (one of) the most discriminated against."

"You must put in the work. Do not expect a free pass just because you have special needs. You need to be exceptionally good at what you are doing but institutions also need to put up an enabling environment that lets people with special needs be as productive as they can be."

"Nobody is perfect. We all have a part of us that doesn’t work well. Identify your disability and turn it into greatness."

"I tell myself, “You can do this, you’ve done more difficult things and survived. And even if you don’t make this deal or you can’t do this task, life goes on”. My faith has also played an important role."

"We first of all have to cultivate the habit of reading, before more people would be motivated to write."

"Representation matters, and persons with disabilities are sorely underrepresented."

"A strong female lead, gives a role model for girls to want to emulate."

"I intend to change perceptions with my story."

"I was frustrated; frustrated with societal perception of people with disabilities and frustrated with reading about a foreigner's perspective of the "African Story", which usually involves wars, famines, AIDS and child soldiers. I think it is time for us to tell our own stories.Farida speaking on the inspiration for her writing"

"The hardest part of a disabled person’s life is not being able to leave home. You always need another person, which not everybody has... I’ve spent most of the years of my life in a single room. It feels like you are in a prison, condemned to stay home...The difference between this kind of life and prison is that you don’t even have a cellmate. At most, you might have a pet. Or your friends come visit. It isn’t so bad sometimes. If you’re able to, you can read."

"I hope to remember my perseverance and courage that went behind achieving my goal. I also hope to remember that the lessons I've learned up to this point will serve future generations as they pursue wheelchair racing."

"Wheelchair racing to me is so similar to this feeling of flying – the feeling of going so fast that it’s almost effortless at the same time. When all of the biomechanics line up in the right way, the sport is so elegant."

"Glorifying Christ comes first, always. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t look to Christ in my times of need or doubt. When we turn to Christ, our joys are multiplied."

"It takes a village to become an Olympian and I can confidently say that my faith and the support I've received from the staff and students at St. John’s have been instrumental in this journey."

"Now, what we need is clever people that are not afraid of thinking deep, of getting their hands dirty, and of tackling great problems. If you feel like giving it a try and you meet some headwind howling that "everything is understood", that "understanding is not our job", or that it is "impossible" or "too difficult", if some colleagues tell you that "physics does not deal with whys", that "understanding is just being Newtonian" or that "Thou shall not philosophize", if they throw invented norms to you, or if weaknesses and career prospects enter the discussion when the debate gets all heated up... you can always answer "Shut up and let me think!" —and get back to work."

"His improvisation was most brilliant and striking. In whatever company he might chance to be, he knew how to produce such an effect upon every hearer that frequently not an eye remained dry, while many would break out into large sobs; for there was something wonderful in his expression in addition to the beauty and originality of his ideas and his spirited style of rendering them. After ending an improvisation of this kind he would burst into loud laughter and banter his hearers on the emotion he had caused in them. "You are fools!" he would say. Sometimes he would feel himself insulted by these indications of sympathy. "Who could live among such spoiled children?" he would cry, and only on that account (as he told me) he declined to accept an invitation which the King of Prussia gave him after one of the extempore performances above described."

"Another equally true saying of Schumann is that, compared with Beethoven, Schubert is as a woman to a man. For it must be confessed that one's attitudes towards him is almost always that of sympathy, attraction, and love, rarely that of embarrassment or fear. Here and there only, as in the Rosamund B minor Entr'acte, or the Finale of the 10th symphony, does he compel his listeners with an irrestistible power; and yet how different is this compulsion from the strong, fierce, merciless coercion, with which Beethoven forces you along, and bows and bends you to his will."

"A brain scan may reveal the neural signs of depression, but a Beethoven symphony reveals what that depression feels like. Both perspectives are necessary if we are to fully grasp the nature of mind, yet they are rarely brought together."

"when people ask you for "influences," they almost inevitably mean literary ones. How silly. It's very probable that listening to Beethoven might influence a writer far more deeply than anything read, but only musicians are asked about Beethoven. The same thing is true, of course, with painting. We really ought to run the arts together more."

"If the question [about if there were only one composer in the world I could play] is purely ‘original’ works, no transcriptions, then Beethoven."

"Beethoven did not always plumb the depths. He was not always busy with major problems and the most significant spiritual experiences. Such works, as the fourth, sixth, and eighth symphonies depict states of mind that require no such intensity of realization. It is significant that they were all written comparatively quickly... They are not in the main line of Beethoven's spiritual development."

"I sometimes dwell on the fact that there's one thing that time and humankind will not be able to take away from me, leaving me rich, richer than Croesus: the bliss that I derive from a Heine poem, from a Beethoven sonata or a DaVinci painting."

"A colossus beyond the grasp of most mortals, with his totally uncompromising power, his unsensual and uningratiating way with music as with people."

"I want to seize fate by the throat."

"Who can measure the worth of a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo or Beethoven in dollars and cents?"

"When his friends, says Czerny, speak to him of his youthful renown, he replies: "Ah, nonsense! I have never thought of writing for renown and glory. What I have in my heart must out; that is why I write.""

"It was not an enjoyable experience. First of all the piano was dreadfully out of tune, which did not trouble Beethoven in the least, since he could not hear it. Little or nothing remained of the brilliant technique which had been so much admired. In loud passages the poor deaf man hammered away at the notes crashing through whole groups of them so that without the score one lost all sense of the melody. I was deeply moved by the tragedy of it all. Beethoven's almost continual melancholy was no longer a mystery to me."

"The Pianoforte Sonatas of Beethoven must always be among the choicest possessions of all who love music and especially of those who make music their main object and study."

"Knowing the theory of anything is contrasted with know-how in all the arts...Beethoven..Michelangelo..Shakespeare, all great exponents of know-how, probably knew how to manipulate their instruments to achieve the desired results long before they knew the theory of their art. Perhaps some of them never bothered to learn the theory. On the other hand, there are many who know the theory better than these, but who lack know-how....Although we acquire the skill of understanding words by experience, so that we know the correlations between them and things, between words and other words, and between words and feelings and actions, we do not do it by inductive reasoning. Nor must we think that we do it by deductive reasoning... In the main, words are cues rather than clues."

"You are going to Vienna in fulfillment of your long-frustrated wishes. The Genius of Mozart is mourning and weeping over the death of her pupil. She has found a refuge but no occupation with the inexhaustible Haydn; through him she wishes to form a union with another. With the help of assiduous labor you shall receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands."

"My theory was that we are all fundamentally 'multiple personalities', beginning with the baby and the child, and slowly developing into more complex selves. If, for some reason, we abruptly cease to develop -- through some trauma that undermines self-confidence -- all those potential personalities are stunted and repressed. And some accident or violent shock may give one of them the opportunity to 'take over'. This suggests, of course, that in some mysterious sense, our 'future' personalities are already there, in embryo, so to speak, and that they also develop as we mature. We move from personality to personality, as we might climb a ladder. The Beethovens and Leonardos got further up the ladder than most of us; yet even they failed to reach the top, as we can see if we study their lives."

"His ideas came so profusely that he always had several works going on at once, and he always meditated and thought over them for a long while before he brought them to completeness. His practice was to jot down the ideas roughly as they came into his head in little sketch-books which he carried in his pocket, and he then polished and improved these original ideas time after time, sometimes for years, before he worked them up into complete works."

"There ought to be but one large art warehouse in the world, to which the artist could carry his art-works, and from which he could carry away whatever he needed. As it is, one must be half a tradesman."

"...thus do I take my farewell of thee — and indeed sadly — yes that beloved hope — which I brought with me when I came here to be cured at least in a degree — I must wholly abandon, as the leaves of autumn fall and are withered so hope has been blighted, almost as I came — I go away — even the high courage — which often inspired me in the beautiful days of summer — has disappeared — O Providence — grant me at least but one day of pure joy — it is so long since real joy echoed in my heart — O when — O when, O Divine One — shall I find it again in the temple of nature and of men — Never? no — O that would be too hard."

"Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear."

"Nur das Reine im Herzen kann eine gute Suppe machen."

"Musik höhere Offenbarung ist als alle Weisheit und Philosophie."

"Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."

"Music is indeed the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life."

"Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?"