Top 30 Jeff Bauman Quotes

Sometimes I think, ‘Maybe I could have a drink or two.’ But then I think about it, and I just don’t want to. It’s just not in the cards. I know what I feel like now that I don’t drink. I know what it feels like not to be hungover, trying to put my legs on.

Right when I was lying on the ground and saw my legs, I didn’t think first, ‘I’m going to die.’ I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to run again. I can’t play basketball. I’m not going to skate.’

At the end of the day I just want to be a normal guy, hang out with my daughter, go to school, and work on prosthetics.

Hero.’ I’ve always struggled with that word. I’m just a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Knowing that I might be encouraging others by facing my own difficulties is what helps me get out of bed in the morning.

I want people to relate to my family, and to just getting through something – getting through loss in general.

There’s always gonna be some pain, I think, because my body’s going to be like, ‘Where are your lower legs?’

Even in the ambulance ride I was trying to say something, trying to say, like, ‘I knew who did it, I knew what went on.’ And then I think they were kind of thrown back by that. They were like, ‘What? You know what went on? You know what happened?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I saw the guy.’

I consider myself really lucky every single day. To the point where I feel guilty a lot because I have so much and so many other people don’t have what I have.

I really want to do something great. I want to be out there, I want to help people.

Everyone deals with loss.

In my eyes, there’s heroes I look up to. People who saved me – my caretakers, people at Boston Medical Center. My surgeon. The people that pulled me off that ground, who pulled me out. Those are my heroes. The police. The paramedics. Those are the true heroes.

I don’t like being called a hero.

I was a normal guy with a job at Costco, thinking about going back to school. I played sports; I hung out with my friends. I wanted to make something of myself, but I didn’t know what.

I see my family every day and I’m starting my own family now. I’m very thankful and grateful and there’s nothing but positivity and love in my life.

I don’t know, I’m just a weird person like that, I’m kind of sensitive and I feel bad for people that hurt other people ’cause it’s just awful.

I want to show people you can overcome a tragedy.

Sometimes walking to the end of the street with my prosthetics feels like running a mile.

Isolation is huge when you go through something traumatizing. You tend to want to isolate and kind of hide in your hole and kind of just go away.

I wish I wasn’t the face of the victims – three lost near the finish line and hundreds injured – because then everyone would forget about me, and I could recover in peace, and at my own pace.

Everyone kept saying, ‘The terrorists didn’t win. You won! We won! You survived!’ That’s just weird to me. Nobody wins in these situations. I don’t see winners and losers in tragic events.

I got myself into trouble. I was drinking and partying a lot and it caught up with me.

I’m a great father.

I’m just glad I’m still here.

I don’t drink and I don’t party. And I take care of myself mentally, and that’s huge.

Why sit, be negative and be sad and depressed? You got to kind of push everything to the side and just focus on just getting better.

I just want to get to the places I can’t get in the wheelchair, you know? I want to stand up.

I have so much work to do every day to get back to my normal life that I can’t afford to be angry, even at the bombers. I can’t keep looking backward.

I have bad days, days when I just don’t want to do anything. Just kind of want to lay in bed.

Yeah, I get a lot of donations. It’s a lot. I’m getting money all the time.