Christopher Reeve quotes:

A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely. From an acting point of view, that's how I approached the part.

Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.

A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway.

We live in a time when the words impossible and unsolvable are no longer part of the scientific community's vocabulary. Each day we move closer to trials that will not just minimize the symptoms of disease and injury but eliminate them.

We can either watch life from the sidelines, or actively participate... Either we let self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy prevent us from realising our potential, or embrace the fact that when we turn our attention away from ourselves, our potential is limitless.

What I do is based on powers we all have inside us; the ability to endure; the ability to love, to carry on, to make the best of what we have - and you don't have to be a 'Superman' to do it.

Never accept ultimatums, conventional wisdom, or absolutes.

Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Don't sell out.

Your body is not who you are. The mind and spirit transcend the body.

Misfortune can force you into doing things you should be doing anyway. Lessons come from adversity. Anything can happen to anyone... You can find a new lease on life - more meaning than you thought possible in simple things... Let go. Live in the moment. Go forward.

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

It's important to me to say what I really mean.

You learn the stuff of your life (sports, movies, traveling) ... that's not the essence of your existence, my relationships were always good. Now they have transcended (rise beyond).

You can do anything you think you can.

My father is an intellectual and physical man, which is a rather unusual combination. He's great. As he brought up me and my brothers and sisters, he ingrained in us that your appearance is not your responsibility, other than that you should not be a slob.

You play the hand you're dealt. I think the game's worthwhile.

I am optimistic. But I also know that, with time, I'm beginning to fight issues of aging as well as long-term paralysis.

I am a very lucky guy. I can testify before Congress. I can raise funds. I can raise awareness.

You should take some responsibility for the way you present yourself. But you should not be hung up on your looks, whether you are ugly or handsome, because it isn't an achievement.

I have more awareness of other people and, I hope, more sensitivity to their needs. I also find that I'm more direct and outspoken.

When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently asked "What is a hero?" ...My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences... Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

The bigger the canvas, the better I do. I'm not so good at understated, kitchen-sink kinds of parts.

Success is not about money and power. Real success is about relationships. There's no point in making $50 million a year if your teenager thinks you're a jerk and you spend no time with your wife.

Once you choose hope, anything's possible

I remember telling a neurosurgeon, "Don't give me too much information, because at the moment my ignorance is my best asset."

The key to success is letting the relationships in your life grow to the highest levels they possibly can . . . not putting yourself first in life and remembering that the more you give away, the more you have.

I don't think actors are to blame for poor writing. The culture changes first, and the theater follows it. In the case of the movies, it's the same thing.

You've got to give more than you take.

Every scientist should remove the word 'impossible' from their lexicon.

I never said I will stand, I said I hoped to stand. It wasn't a prediction.

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

Some people are walking around with full use of their bodies and they're more paralyzed than I am.

I did my first apprenticeship when I was 15, then joined the union when I was 17. I worked every summer in high school and college.

At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable.

It never occurred to me that I was a leading man until I was 19 years old. I had been acting since I was 10, so that's nine years and 30 or 40 plays, in school and summer stock, professional theater, too.

Success is finding satisfaction in giving a little more than you take.

All the scientists who are working on solving the problem of curing paralysis say that it won't do you any good if you don't keep your body in shape.

It's defeatist to harp on what might have been, and yet, it's hard to resist considering what might have been.

Even though I don't personally believe in the Lord, I try to behave as though He was watching.

At some time, often when we least expect it, we all have to face overwhelming challenges. When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is hope. Once we find it, we must cling to it with absolute determination. When we have hope, we discover powers within ourselves we may have never known- the power to make sacrifices, to endure, to heal, and to love. Once we choose hope, everything is possible.

When I first began acting, I assumed an intellectual responsibility attached to my profession, which I had accepted for a long time. My father taught me that an actor had to have a social and political conscience, and that the work that he does has to reflect from that.

I'm not living the life I thought I would lead, but it does have meaning, purpose. There is love... there is joy... there is laughter.

In the face of adversity, hope often comes in the form of a friend who reaches out to us.

I have never been disabled in my dreams.

Once we choose hope, everything is possible.

Pain is inevitable. Misery is a choice.

To be able to feel the lightest touch really is a gift.

If you don't have a vision, nothing happens.

I think we all have a little voice inside us that will guide us. It may be God, I don't know. But I think that if we shut out all the noise and clutter from our lives and listen to that voice, it will tell us the right thing to do.

Don't put a limit on what can be accomplished.

Even if your body doesn't work the way it used to, the heart and the mind and the spirit are not diminished.

If I can laugh, I can live.

I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. There is only one way to go in life and that is forward.

there is a relationship between the mind and the body that can both create a physical condition and enable us to recover from it

We all have many more abilities and internal resources than we know. My advice is that you don't need to break your neck to find out about them.

Nothing of any consequence happens unless people get behind an idea. It begins with an individual and they share the idea with more individuals-and eventually it becomes a movement.

I get pretty impatient with people who are able-bodied but are somehow paralyzed for other reasons.

Either you vegetate and look out a window, or activate and try to effect change.

What can I do today to take a step forward?

If we don't dream of the possible, the possible never happens.

On the wall of his rehabilitation room was a picture of the space shuttle blasting off, autographed by every astronaut now at NASA. On top of the picture it says, "We found nothing is impossible." That should be our motto.

America is better when all of us take care of all of us.

You should have a dream and absolutely go for it. Don't let anybody say you can't do it.

I've still never had a dream that I'm disabled. Never.

A hero is an ordinary person doing things in an extra ordinary way.

There is no such thing as can't.

By reaching out, more comes back than you can possibly imagine.

Living a life with meaning means spreading the word. Even if you can't move, you can have a powerful effect with what you say.

When we turn our attention away from ourselves, our potential is limitless.

I'm starting a new chapter in my [[life], and you have no idea how much that means.

I don't have to prove anything to anyone. As a result, I am ready to take up again the characters who are closer to what I really am.

People may never understand this - and perhaps I should give up caring whether they do or not - but the idea of me playing Superman is so far away from what I was brought up to aspire to.

Having that college-town atmosphere with a live repertory company available was a real gift. I found myself gravitating toward the theater from about the age of nine. I guess it was the environment that got me started.

I have no bones to pick and no fight with society. And I'm willing to be and interested in being in the mainstream of society.

In the second half of the 20th century, people are becoming more limited: Vocabularies are smaller, thoughts are smaller, aspirations are smaller, everything is very scaled down. Everyone is typecast.

Maybe one way I am original is that at heart I really am a classical actor. I haven't had my chance yet in the commercial world to show that. Movies aren't really made about classical people so much any more.

The character is a piece of fiction. You are yourself, however, and that makes you interesting, because you're alive and you're a human being.

And if you can channel the truth of your own experience onto the stage, that's what the audience wants to see.