Jesse Owens Quotes

Quotes about:

Determination Discipline Giving Gold Horses Inspirational Marathon

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.

Jesse Owens

Inspirational, Motivational, Running

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

818 Copy quote
Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it.

Jesse Owens

Inspirational, Motivational, Sports

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

234 Copy quote
The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

Jesse Owens

Running, Over You, Victory

Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1978). “Jesse, a spiritual autobiography”

170 Copy quote
In the end, it's extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more that that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don't win, how can you lose?

Jesse Owens

Inspirational, Positive, Success

259 Copy quote
The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

Jesse Owens

Inspirational, Motivational, Running

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

191 Copy quote
When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference?

Jesse Owens

Running, Country, Differences

179 Copy quote
There is something that can happen to every athlete and every human being; the instinct to slack off, to give in to pain, to give less than your best; the instinct to hope you can win through luck or through your opponent not doing his best, instead of going to the limit and past your limit where victory is always found. Defeating those negative instincts that are out to defeat us, is the difference between winning and losing - and we all face that battle every day.

Jesse Owens

Pain, Athlete, Winning

198 Copy quote
Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.

Jesse Owens

Hands, White, House

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

190 Copy quote
Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

Jesse Owens

Friendship, Basketball, Running

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

136 Copy quote
Championships are mythical. The real champions are those who live through what they are taught in their homes and churches. The attitude that 'We've got to win' in sports must be changed. Teach your youngsters, who are the future hope of America, the importance of love, respect, dedication, determination, self-sacrifice, self-discipline and good attitude. That's the road up the ladder to the championships.

Jesse Owens

Sports, Determination, Attitude

143 Copy quote
One chance is all you need.

Jesse Owens

Inspirational, Motivational, Sports

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

112 Copy quote
I always loved running... it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.

Jesse Owens

Motivational, Fitness, Running

Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1978). “Jesse, a spiritual autobiography”

146 Copy quote
The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness.

Jesse Owens

Humanness Is, Ties, Humans

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

24 Copy quote
Life doesn't give you all the practice races you need.

Jesse Owens

Race, Practice, Giving

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

7 Copy quote
After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.

Jesse Owens

Sports, Jobs, Home

Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1972). “I Have Changed”

108 Copy quote
A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.

Jesse Owens

Motivational, Sports, Quilts

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

105 Copy quote
Hitler didn't snub me - it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.

Jesse Owens

President, Telegrams

"Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics". Book by Jeremy Schaap, 2007.

80 Copy quote
People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway.

Jesse Owens

Sports, Running, Horse

"Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz, www.espn.com.

112 Copy quote
Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond comprehension, but it also makes you free.

Jesse Owens

Running, Real, Joy

92 Copy quote
Only by God?s grace have I made it to see today and only by God?s grace will I ever see tomorrow.

Jesse Owens

Godly, Grace, Today

78 Copy quote
It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close

Jesse Owens

Sports, Running, Athlete

Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1978). “Jesse, a spiritual autobiography”

14 Copy quote
People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you.

Jesse Owens

Success, Determination, People

15 Copy quote
We must respect the rights and properties of our fellowman. And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of athletics, according to the rules of society. If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship.

Jesse Owens

Games, Play, Rights

89 Copy quote
To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten. The first 'second' is when you come out of the blocks. The next is when you look up and take your first few strides to attain gain position. By that time the race is actually about half over. The final 'second' - the longest slice of time in the world for an athlete - is that last half of the race, when you really bear down and see what you're made of. It seems to take an eternity, yet is all over before you can think what's happening.

Jesse Owens

Sports, Block, Athlete

Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1972). “I Have Changed”

27 Copy quote
I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

Jesse Owens

Running, Athlete, Long Ago

Jesse Owens, Paul G. Neimark (1978). “Jesse, a spiritual autobiography”

96 Copy quote

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Born: September 12, 1913
Died: March 31, 1980
Occupation: Olympic athlete
Cite this Page: Citation

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