“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
-Albert Einstein
“A teacher sent the following note home with a six-year-old boy: “He is too stupid to learn.” That boy was Thomas A. Edison”.
- Thomas Edison
“I was, on the whole, considerably discouraged by my school days. It was not pleasant to feel oneself so completely outclassed and left behind at the beginning of the race.”
- Winston Churchill
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
- Albert Einstein
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
-Thomas A. Edison
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
- Albert Einstein
“You should prefer a good scientist without literary abilities than a literate one without scientific skills.”
- Leonardo da Vinci
“My teachers say I’m addled . . . my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.”
- Thomas Edison
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
- Walt Disney
“My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”
- Thomas Edison
“He told me that his teachers reported that . . . he was mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.”
- Hans Albert Einstein (Albert Einstein’s father)
“Tell me and I forget.
Teach me and I learn.
Involve me and I remember.”
- Benjamin Franklin
“If, at first, an idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it.”
- Albert Einstein
“Your brain is much better than you think; just use it!”
- Leonardo Da Vinci
“If I wasn’t dyslexic, I probably wouldn’t have won the Games. If I had been a better reader, then that would have come easily, sports would have come easily… and I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is hard work.”
- Bruce Jenner
“By logic and reason we die hourly. By imagination we live.”
- William Butler Yeats
“Before you can do something that you’ve never done, you have to be able to imagine it is possible.”
- Jean Shinoda Bolen
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
- Albert Einstein
“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”
- Albert Einstein
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
- Walt Disney
“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
- Thomas Edison
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
- Albert Einstein
“When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.”
- George Washington
“The looks, the stares, the giggles . . . I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.”
- Magic Johnson
“He did not speak until the age of three and teachers labeled him mentally slow: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
-Albert Einstein
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. ”
-Leonardo da Vinci
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
-Winston Churchill
“I felt like an alien. I always felt like I never belonged to any group that I wanted to belong to.”
-Steven Spielberg
“If you are dyslexic, your eyes work fine, your brain works fine, but there is a little short circuit in the wire that goes between the eye and the brain. Reading is not a fluid process. ”
- Bruce Jenner
“I couldn’t read. I just scraped by. My solution back then was to read classic comic books because I could figure them out from the context of the pictures. Now I listen to books on tape. ”
- Charles Schwab
“I hated school . . . . One of the reasons was a learning disability, dyslexia, which no one understood at the time. I still can’t spell . . .”
- Loretta Young
“I was one of the ‘puzzle children’ myself — a dyslexic . . . And I still have a hard time reading today. Accept the fact that you have a problem. Refuse to feel sorry for yourself. You have a challenge; never quit! ”
- Nelson Rockefeller
“What you are will show in what you do.”
-Thomas A. Edison
“It caused more problems as a young kid, because the simple process of perceiving words on a piece of paper was hard for me. Many people think dyslexic people see things backwards. They don’t see things backwards. ”
- Bruce Jenner
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ”
- Thomas A. Edison
“When I had dyslexia, they didn’t diagnose it as that. It was frustrating and embarrassing. I could tell you a lot of horror stories about what you feel like on the inside. ”
- Nolan Ryan
“Having made a strenuous effort to understand the symbols he could make nothing of, he wept giant tears . . .”
- Caroline Commanville, (talking about her uncle, Gustave Flaubert)
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
-Winston Churchill
“I, myself, was always recognized . . . as the “slow one” in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was . . . an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day. ”
- Agatha Christie
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. ”
-Thomas Jefferson
“I barely made it through school. I read real slow. But I like to find things that nobody else has found, like a dinosaur egg that has an embryo inside. Well, there are 36 of them in the world, and I found 35. ”
- Dr. John R. Horner (American paleontologist)
“Passion is the great slayer of adversity. Focus on strengths and what you enjoy.”
- Charles Schwab
“My father was an angry and impatient teacher and flung the reading book at my head.”
- W.B. Yeats
“It caused more problems as a young kid, because the simple process of perceiving words on a piece of paper was hard for me. Many people think dyslexic people see things backwards. They don’t see things backwards. ”
- Bruce Jenner
“The biggest problem with dyslexic kids is not the perceptual problem, it is their perception of themselves. That was my biggest problem. ”
- Bruce Jenner
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
- Thomas A. Edison
“I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read. ”
- Tom Cruise, actor
“Willie was sent to lessons in spelling and grammar, but he never learned to spell. To the end of his life he produced highly idiosyncratic versions of words. ”
- Biographer A. Norman Jeffares ( talking about William Butler Yeats)
“I grew up in a school system . . . where nobody understood the meaning of learning disorder. In the West Indies, I was constantly being physically abused because the whipping of students was permitted. ”
- Harry Belafonte
“I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.”
- Thomas A. Edison
“I start where the last man left off.”
-Thomas A. Edison
“Since I was the stupidest kid in my class, it never occurred to me to try and be perfect, so I’ve always been happy as a writer just to entertain myself. That’s an easier place to start. ”
- Stephen J. Cannell (screenwriter, producer, & director)
“Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward! ”
-Thomas A. Edison
“ The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. ”
-Leonardo da Vinci
“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company. ”
-George Washington
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
-Albert Einstein
“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won. ”
-Winston Churchill
“Kids made fun of me because I was dark skinned, had a wide nose, and was dyslexic. Even as an actor, it took me a long time to realize why words and letters got jumbled in my mind and came out differently. ”
- Danny Glover, actor
“Many times I can see a solution to something differently and quicker than other people. I see the end zone and say ‘This is where I want to go.’”
- Charles Schwab
“I am, myself, a very poor visualizer and find that I can seldom call to mind even a single letter of the alphabet in purely retinal terms. I must trace the letter by running my mental eye over its contour in order that the image of it shall leave any distinctness at all. ”
- William James ( psychologist and philosopher)
“I just barely got through school. The problem was a learning disability, at a time when there was nowhere to get help. ”
- Bruce Jenner (Olympic gold medalist)
“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius. ”
-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
- Thomas Edison
“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.”
-George Washington
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ”
- Scott Adams (Cartoonist)
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
- Albert Einstein
“Young George . . . although he was bright and intelligent and bursting with energy, he was unable to read and write. Patton’s wife corrected his spelling, his punctuation, and his grammar. ”
- Biographer Martin Blumenson (talking about General George Patton)
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
- Albert Einstein
“There is far more opportunity than there is ability.”
- Thomas A. Edison
“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”
-Thomas A. Edison
“My problem was reading very slowly. My parents said “Take as long as you need. As long as you’re going to read, just keep at it.” We didn’t know about learning disabilities back then.”
- Roger Wilkins (head of the Pulitzer Prize Board)
“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her. ”
- George Washington
“As a child, I was called stupid and lazy. On the SAT I got 159 out of 800 in math. My parents had no idea that I had a learning disability.”
- Henry Winkler (actor)
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
- Albert Einstein
“History is written by the victors.”
-Winston Churchill
“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”
-Albert Einstein
“I was dyslexic before anybody knew what dyslexia was. I was called ‘slow’. It’s an awful feeling to think of yourself as ‘slow’ – it’s horrible.”
- Robert Benton
“Passion is the great slayer of adversity. Focus on strengths and what you enjoy.”
- Charles Schwab
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“I was very active but I was dyslexic and had a really hard time at school.”
- Ashley Scott
“I’m a human being, I’m not a machine. I’m 72. I’m dyslexic.”
- Robert Blake
“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
- Thomas Edison
“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”
- George Washington
“I always felt a bit alone and isolated from other people…I did a lot of pretending as a child. It was my way of coping with the fact that I didn’t feel like I fit in.”
- Keneau Reeves
“From a note signed by this dyslexic and his mother: “If I don’t miss one day of school this year I got $1.00.”
- Nelson A. Rockefeller
“When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.”
- George Washington
“Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”
-Albert Einstein
“Failure in school does not mean failure in life.”
- Steven J. Cannell(TV producer)
“Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.”
-Albert Einstein
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
-Albert Einstein
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”
- George Washington
“I firmly believe that deep in their soul everyone has a champion that can overcome obstacles and do great things.”
- Bruce Jenner
“The looks, the stares, the giggles…I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.”
- Magic Johnson
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
-Albert Einstein
“I never worry about action, but only inaction.”
- Winston Churchill
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
- Albert Einstein
“They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.”
-Thomas A. Edison
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.”
-Albert Einstein
“My childhood was extremely lonely. I was dyslexic and lots of kids make fun of me. That experience made me tough inside, because you learn to quietly accept ridicule.”
- Tom Cruise
“My diary is a disaster…I can’t spell at all…I’ll spell the same word completely differently in the same sentence.”
- Liv Tyler
“Life is full of challenges. How you handle these challenges is what builds character. Never be afraid to be who you are.”
- Erin Brockovich
“In reference to his being the class clown: “I didn’t want anyone to know that I didn’t get it.”
-Tommy Hilfiger
“I used to love reading when I was little, and then it became difficult and I didn’t understand why. I thought, what a bummer, my passion all drained out of me. So when I found out I had dyslexia, it was like, oh, that’s what it was.”
- Jewel, singer,
“My learning disabilities pushed me to discover talents that I wasn’t aware of having. It has also led me to develop products to help others who struggled through school as I did.”
- Reyn Geyer, (inventor of Nerf balls & Twister)
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
- Agatha Christie, author
“I get stubborn and dig in when people tell me I can’t do something and I think I can. It goes back to my childhood when I had problems in school because I have a learning disability. I never wanted to be perceived as handicapped or limited in any way.”
-Ann Bancroft (polar explorer)
“Never lose a holy curiosity.”
- Albert Einstein
“”My mom and I used to go to Hollywood and look at all the rich people. I said then that someday I was going to be somebody. I even practiced signing my autograph.
- Cher
“If you read to me I could tell you everything that was read. They didn’t know what it was. They knew I wasn’t lazy, but what was it?”
- Whoopi Goldberg
“One thing about mildly dyslexic people – they’re good at setting everything else aside to pursue one goal.”
- Jay Leno
“I never read in school. I got really bad grades–D’s and F’s and C’s in some classes, and A’s and B’s in other classes. In the second week of the 11th grade, I just quit. When I was in school, it was really difficult. Almost everything I learned, I had to learn by listening. My report cards always said that I was not living up to my potential.”
- Cher
“It is not easy to compete when you have LD, but it is possible.”
- Henry Winkler
“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”
- Albert Einstein
