Disability History: People Making a Difference: Who said it? Quotes from Famous People Living with Adversity!

Disability History: People Making a Difference features stories of people in their own homes, lives, families, communities, states, nations or the world making a difference (as), (with) or (for) people with disabilities.

Answers to our 2012 Cross-Word Puzzle (Summer Newsletter page 4) - Who said it? Quotes from Famous People Living with Adversity

Across

    1. Albert Einstein - (March 14, 1879 – 18 April 1955) - "Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater." - Physicist and Mathematician, person who may or may not have lived with Dyslexia

    2. Vincent VanGogh - "As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inner most strength of the heart is developed." - Impressionist painter, who may or may not have lived with Meniere's Syndrome.

    3. Hellen Keller - "...Since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation." - American author, political activist, and lecturer, person with hearing and visual impairment.

    4. Stephen Hawking - "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." - mathematician and theoretical physicist, person with motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, fully paralyzed

    5. Michael J. Fox - "It's a gift that keeps on taking, but it is a gift, because it's really opened me up to be a more kind of compassionate, curious, risk-taking person. And it's given me - I wouldn't call the foundation my magnum opus, but it's definitely the most important thing I have ever done or will probably do in my life." - Canadian American actor, author, celebrity, producer, activist and voice-over artist, founder of Michael J. Fox Foundation for research and finding a cure and effective therapies for people with Parkinson's Disease, husband, father, person with Parkinson's Disease

    6. Bonnie St. John - "My life is proof that you can have joy, you can choose joy because that turns the situation around." from Live Your Joy. - first African-American Winter Paralympic medal winner, author, motivational speaker, person with right leg amputation

    7. Cassey Pieretti - "[Bill] is the mad scientist inventor and I am the person that stands in the way of all danger." - actor, stuntman, devices to aid persons with amputation, prosthetic inventor, "Amp'd Gear" owner, person with below the knee amputation

    8. Teddy Pendergrass - "There is a need to assist those with SCI (Spinal Cord injury) to become or return to being productive members of society." - American R&B/soul singer and songwriter, founder of the Teddy Pendergrass Alliance, an organization for people with Spinal Cord Injury, - a person with parapalegia

Down

    1. Tom Whittaker (born 1949) - "Seek your Summit" - the first person with right foot amputation to climb to the summit of Mount Everest, motivational speaker, founder of the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group (C.W.HOG)

    2. Walt Disney - "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me...." American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, and animator. Although it is generally stated he was a person with Dyslexia, upon further research there is no confirmed proof.

    3. Abraham Lincoln - "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other." - lawyer, Illinois legislator, U.S. Congressman, 16th President of the United States, considered a great orator, husband, father, person with clinical depression(only person on list without a physical disability), however an inspirational quote.

    4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt - "Unless the peace that follows recognizes that the whole world is one neighborhood and does justice to the whole human race, the germs of another world war will remain as a constant threat to mankind." - 32nd President of the United States, person with polio

    5. Christopher Reeve - "When we have hope, we discover powers within ourselves we may have never known. Once we choose hope, everything is possible." - an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist, person with cervical spinal injury that paralyzed him from the neck down

    6. Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707 - July 13, 1785) - "My hand trembles, my heart does not." - signer of the Declaration of Independence, person with cerebral palsy

    7. "Terry" Fox (July 28, 1958 - June 28, 1981) - "Marathon of Hope" - Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer research activist, person with right leg amputation

    8. "Rick" Allen (born November 1, 1963) - "Before my accident I was a little too... selfish and self-absorbed and for me, to now be at the place where I can kinda give back and inspire people. I'm blessed. I'm really blessed. " - drummer for the English hard rock band, Def Leppard, artist, husband, - person with left arm amputatiion