Oscar Pistorius Quotes

“Being disabled doesn't have to be a disadvantage.”

“Everyone has setbacks. I'm no different. I happen to have no legs. That's pretty much the fact.”

“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.”

“I don't see myself as disabled. There's nothing I can't do that able-bodied athletes can do.”

“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.”

“I grew up not really thinking I had a disability. I grew up thinking I had different shoes.”

“I have a strong sense that I have to educate people about disability.”

“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.”

“I think every athlete that’s just out here for the Olympics just does something to inspire those around them and inspire each other.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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!”

“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.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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!”

“The more I accomplish, the more pressure I put on myself.”

“The only disability in life is having a bad attitude.”

“There is a big difference between being good and being great.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“You don't call the witness a liar, not while he is in the witness box.”

“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.”

“You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have.”