Pistorius Quotes & Sayings

Putting on my legs is like putting on my shoes. I understand that's how some people might think differently, but I hope that in London, their perceptions open up. — Oscar Pistorius

I don't want to be competing in a sport where I feel that I'm here not on my talent and my hard work but because of a piece of equipment. — Oscar Pistorius

I grew up not really thinking I had a disability. I grew up thinking I had different shoes — Oscar Pistorius

The thought that I might soon hear my "voice" say, "I'm hungry" as many times as I want it to astounds me. Realizing that I might be able to ask, "What's on the TV?" amazes me. These simple words are my own personal Mount Everests, to think I might soon conquer them is almost unimaginable. — Martin Pistorius

My parents didn't give me any scope to feel sorry for myself. They were just like 'go play with your brother, go climb a tree, go fall off your motorbike, do whatever you want. Don't come crying to us when you get scratched. You've got prosthetic legs - that's very nice.' — Oscar Pistorius

I'd been put into a box long before, after all. Each of us has. Are you the "difficult" child or the "histrionic" lover, the "argumentative" sibling or the "long-suffering" spouse? Boxes make us easier to understand, but they also imprison us because people don't see past them. — Martin Pistorius

I could see neither fascination nor delight on their faces, and I wondered if it was possible to get so used to joy that you stopped noticing it? — Martin Pistorius

If someone does not expect or is not expected to achieve, then they never will. — Martin Pistorius

I'd like to show people that if you put the hard work in and you believe in yourself, then you can do whatever you want to. — Oscar Pistorius

Romantic love has always interested me: the way it ebbs and flows like a living thing, or how it is revealed in secret smiles or anguished conversations. Perhaps I've always found it captivating because it was the starkest reminder of how alone I was. — Martin Pistorius

However fearful I am, when I contemplate the possibility that someone might finally realize I'm here, I can feel the wings of a bird called hope beginning to beat softly inside my chest. — Martin Pistorius

It's right to say that people fall in love. We don't glide, slip, or stumble into it. Instead we tumble head first from the moment we decide to step off the edge of a cliff with someone and see whether we'll fly together. Love might be irrational, but we make the choice to risk everything. — Martin Pistorius

It's impossible to make everyone happy. Some will choose to see the negative. None is perfect but find a way of loving them perfectly! — Oscar Pistorius

Rio in four years; I've got more inspiration in the last two, three weeks. I'm sure I'm going to get more in the Paralympics in the next coming weeks, so by the end of this season, I'm going to take a month off, and then the next four years is going to be good. — Oscar Pistorius

I can have my goals, and I can have my dreams. My goal is to make the finals and improve my position. I want to run all decent races. I don't want to look back and say I ran a terrible race. — Oscar Pistorius

If the legs did provide such an advantage that some of the people are claiming they did, then there would be a lot more amputees using the exact same prosthetic legs I have, running the exact same times I have - and that's not the case. — Oscar Pistorius

I have a strong sense that I have to educate people about disability. — Oscar Pistorius

I want to wake up every day and feel that I'm training harder than my competitors, that I'm dieting harder, that I'm recovering better. That's what gives me confidence when I'm lining up on the blocks. I've never gone out to prove people wrong. I just want to be the best that I can possibly be. — Oscar Pistorius

Being disabled doesn't have to be a disadvantage. — Oscar Pistorius

To have been selected to represent Team South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay is a real honor and I am so pleased that years of hard work, determination and sacrifice have all come together. — Oscar Pistorius

The things we see," Pistorius said softly, "are the same things that are within us. There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself. You can be happy that way. But once you know the other interpretation you no longer have the choice of following the crowd. Sinclair, the majority's path is an easy one, ours is difficult. — Hermann Hesse

Out of the tens of thousands of prosthetic legs they've made, there's never been any 400-meter athletes run under 50 seconds. So, if this was such a technologically advanced prosthetic leg, then how come not everyone's qualifying, or coming close to the qualification time, then? — Oscar Pistorius

At times it felt confusing to be surrounded by people, utterly alone and yet aware that God was my companion. — Martin Pistorius

Do they really think that a limited intellect means a child can't feel viciousness in a person's touch or hear anger in the tone of their voice? — Martin Pistorius

I have run two Olympic 'A' standard times over the past 12 months and with the time I ran at the African Championships last week I know my speed and fitness are constantly improving so that I will peak in time for the Olympics. — Oscar Pistorius

These have always been my legs. I train harder than other guys, eat better, sleep better and wake up thinking about athletics. I think that's probably why I'm a bit of an exception. — Oscar Pistorius

You don't call the witness a liar, not while he is in the witness box. — Oscar Pistorius

Thank you to everyone that has made me the athlete I am! God, family and friends, my competitors and supporters! You have all had a hand! — Oscar Pistorius

I have a phenomenal team behind me who have helped get me here and I, along with them, will now put everything we can into the final few weeks of preparations before the Olympic Games, where I am aiming to race well, work well through the rounds, post good times and maybe even a personal best time on the biggest stage of them all. — Oscar Pistorius

Women seem to think they go on diets in order to feel happier, but I know from experience that this isn't true. In fact, I can safely say that the less women eat, the grumpier they get. — Martin Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius is now infamous for reasons that I think everybody knows about, but when I hit on his story and put it in the book, what I found fascinating was a description, from one of the scientists who helped Pistorius, of what the Paralympics will become. Because they don't place any restriction on enhancements for athletes, in the very near future the Paralympics will bear a closer resemblance to NASCAR than to the traditional Olympics. There will be a human-machine melding that will result in crazy feats of athleticism. — Ron Currie Jr.

God and I didn't talk about the big things in life - we didn't engage in philosophical debates or argue about religion - but I talked to Him endlessly because I knew we shared something important. I didn't have proof that He existed, but I believed in Him anyway because I knew He was real. God did the same for me. Unlike people, He didn't need proof that I existed - He knew I did. — Martin Pistorius

There is salt and sweet in every life. — Martin Pistorius

I would like you all to stop for a moment and really think about not having a voice or any means to communicate," my computer voice says. "You could never say, 'Pass the salt' or tell someone the really important things like 'I love you.' You can't tell someone that you're uncomfortable, cold, or in pain. — Martin Pistorius

Treat everyone with kindness, dignity, compassion and respect, irrespective of whether you think they understand or not. — Martin Pistorius

Deep down I know, of course, that I no longer need to lose myself in fantasy because I'm living life at last. But I'll always be thankful for my imagination because I learned long ago that it was my greatest gift: it was the key that unlocked my prison and allowed me to escape, the door through which I entered new worlds and conquered them - the place where I was free. — Martin Pistorius

You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have. — Oscar Pistorius

The more I accomplish, the more pressure I put on myself. — Oscar Pistorius

And it was then that I realized that families might be the ones who pick us up time and again but strangers can also rescue us - even if they don't know they're doing so. — Martin Pistorius

The poster boy for our superabled future is Oscar Pistorius, an increasingly famous South African sprinter who happens to have had both of his legs amputated below the knee. Using upside down question mark-shaped carbon fiber sprinting prosthetics, called Cheetah blades, Mr. Pistorius can challenge the fastest sprinters in the world. — Daniel H. Wilson

None of us knows what we can bear until we're asked, — Martin Pistorius

I think every athlete that's just out here for the Olympics just does something to inspire those around them and inspire each other. — Oscar Pistorius

The last time I saw a blonde with red streaks in her hair she was laying on Oscar Pistorius' bathroom floor, — Joan Rivers

I am also hugely excited to then be competing to defend my three Paralympic titles at the Paralympic Games. I believe we will see some amazing times posted and I am very much looking forward to what will be an incredible Olympics and Paralympics in London. — Oscar Pistorius

And it was only in that moment, as I felt my father's arms holding me upright and his strength keeping me steady, that I knew his love was strong enough to protect me from an ocean. — Martin Pistorius

No one seems to consider that even people who are thought to be intellectually impaired can change as they grow older. — Martin Pistorius

I wasn't happy with my performance at the World Championships in Daegu. I had an unbelievable race in the heats, but misjudged the semi and finished last. — Oscar Pistorius

Everyone has setbacks. I'm no different. I happen to have no legs. That's pretty much the fact. — Oscar Pistorius

That kind of love can be passed from one person to the next, like a life force that will comfort anyone it touches and creates memories that burn strong years after the events that inspire them. — Martin Pistorius

Being disabled doesn't mean you have a disadvantage — Oscar Pistorius

I know so much about other people's expectations and so little about my own. — Martin Pistorius

I don't see myself as disabled. There's nothing I can't do that able-bodied athletes can do. — Oscar Pistorius

Sadness, though, is probably the hardest thing of all to hide because sorrow has a way of seeping out however well people think they're containing it. You only have to look to see the signs, but most people don't, which is why so many seem to end up feeling lonely. — Martin Pistorius

When you're competing, you don't have the choice of what the weather will be like. It really doesn't affect me. I ran one of my fastest times in the New York Diamond League meeting last year. It was raining pretty hard then. — Oscar Pistorius

Dreams can be any size you want them to be. But the important thing is that you have one that is yours. — Martin Pistorius

I still find it strange, I suppose, when I say to someone, 'Can you just pass me my leg?' But I don't ever think about my disability. — Oscar Pistorius

I know a life can be destroyed in an instant: a car spins out of control on a busy road, a doctor sits down to break bad news, or a love letter is discovered hidden in a place where its owner thought it never would be found. All these things can shatter a world in just a few moments. But is it possible for the opposite to happen - for a life to be created in a moment instead of destroyed? For a man to see a face and know it belongs to the woman he will spend the rest of his life with? — Martin Pistorius