Gabrielle Giffords Quotations

My spirit is as strong as ever. I'm still fighting to make the world a safer place, and you can, too.

Many may look at me and see mostly what I have lost. I struggle to speak, my eyesight's not great, my right arm and leg are paralyzed, and I left a job I loved representing southern Arizona in Congress.

In the absence of a Congress ready to act to reduce gun violence, we will keep working to create a different Congress.

Gun owners and non-gun owners alike agree on expanding background checks, making gun trafficking a serious crime with stiff penalties, making it illegal for all stalkers and all domestic abusers to buy guns, and expanding mental health resources so the mentally ill find it easier to receive treatment than to buy firearms.

As gun owners, my husband and I understand that the Second Amendment is most at risk when a criminal or deranged person commits a gun crime. These acts only embolden those who oppose gun ownership. Promoting responsible gun laws protects the Second Amendment and reduces lives lost from guns.

I strongly believe that crossing the aisle for the good of the American people is more important than party politics.

Expanding background checks will help create a uniform standard for all gun purchases and prevent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from obtaining powerful weapons.

I've been working hard: lots of therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, yoga too.

Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something.

Rehab is endlessly repetitive. And it's never easy, because once you've mastered some movement or action or word, no matter how small, you move on to the next. You never rest.

Dangerous people with guns are a threat to women.

Even though many couples are choosing to marry later in life, our laws haven't been updated to address dating partner abuse.

I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress.

Music has always been really important to me.

People have told me that I'm courageous, but I have seen greater courage.

While my speech is getting better every day, throughout my recovery, I have been able to sing to some extent.

Every time guns fall into the wrong hands and are used to intimidate, injure, or murder women, it erodes the rights of responsible gun owners everywhere.

From Texas to New Hampshire and everywhere in between, we know that support for policies such as expanded background checks continue to be popular in both parties.

Generations of gun owners have taught their sons and daughters that it takes as much patience and skill to be a good shot as it does to be a good steward of a powerful weapon.

I had planned to spend my 40s continuing my public service and starting a family. I thought that by fighting for the people I cared about and loving those close to me, I could leave the world a better place.

I'm fighting hard to make the world a better place, and you can, too. Get involved with your community, be a leader, set an example, be passionate, be your best.

Music therapy was so important in the early stages of my recovery because it can help retrain different parts of your brain to form language centers in areas where they weren't before you were injured.

Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets.

Some might consider me an unlikely advocate for gun rights because I sustained terrible injuries in a violent shooting. But I'm a patriot, and I believe the right to bear arms is a definitive part of our American heritage.

Countless hours of physical therapy - and the talents of the medical community - have brought me new movement in my right arm. It's fractional progress, and it took a long time, but my arm moves when I tell it to.

Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith,

But the safety of the world, in some sense, depends on your saying no to inhumane ideas. Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.

Mile by mile, it's a trial; yard by yard, it's hard; but inch by inch, it's a cinch.

The Capitol looks beautiful and I am honored to be at work tonight.

My position is to listen to my constituents, learn from the best information available and ultimately make sound, rational decisions that are going to be beneficial to the people of the 8th Congressional District.

Our country must be strong enough to solve problems, and that means we must learn how to work together again.

Our office corner has really become an area where the Tea party movement congregates and the rhetoric is really heated. Not just the calls but the e-mails, the slurs.

It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I got to see firsthand the sacrifices that Israelis make in the name of security because of the dangerous state of affairs there. I will always be a strong supporter of Israel.

Moments ago, the U.S. Senate decided to do the unthinkable about gun violence --- nothing at all. Over two years ago, when I was shot point-blank in the head, the U.S. Senate chose to do nothing. Four months ago, 20 first-graders lost their lives in a brutal attack on their school, and the U.S. Senate chose to do nothing. It's clear to me that if members of the U.S. Senate refuse to change the laws to reduce gun violence, then we need to change the members of the U.S. Senate.

Your future shines bright - find your purpose and go for it. Starting tomorrow, you can change the world.

I will get stronger. I will return.

Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith... Long ways to go. Grateful to survive. I's frustrating. Mentally hard. Hard work. I'm trying. Trying so hard to get better. Regain what I've lost... I will get stronger. I will return.

We're in Sarah Palin's 'targeted' list, but the thing is that the way she has it depicted, we're in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize that there are consequences to that action.

Be bold, be courageous, be your best.

Our democracy's history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate - people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list,

We know that silence equals consent when atrocities are committed against innocent men, women and children. We know that indifference equals complicity when bigotry, hatred and intolerance are allowed to take root. And we know that education and hope are the most effective ways to combat ignorance and despair.

I am still fighting to make the world a better place and you can, too.

My resolution, standing with the vast majority of Americans who know we can and must be safer, is to cede no ground to those who would convince us the path is too steep, or we too weak.