Arthur Ashe Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.

  Arthur Ashe

  Inspirational, Funny, Dark

  89 Copy quote

• Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

  Arthur Ashe

  Fear, Winning, Greatness

  11 Copy quote

• If I don't ask "Why me?" after my victories, I cannot ask "Why me?" after my setbacks and disasters.

  Arthur Ashe

  Personality, Victory, Why Me

  8 Copy quote

• There were times when I asked myself whether I was being principled or simply a coward.... I was wrapped in the cocoon of tennis early in life, mainly by blacks like my most powerful mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia. They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well. I look at photographs of the skinny, frail, little black boy that I was in the early 1950s, and I see that I was my tennis racquet and my tennis racquet was me. It was my rod and my staff.

  Arthur Ashe

  Powerful, Boys, Virginia

  22 Copy quote

• If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me.

  Arthur Ashe

  Mean, Reputation, Possession

  10 Copy quote

• My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.

  Arthur Ashe

  Sports, Race, Diversity

  11 Copy quote

• We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and or young, our women as well as our men.

  Arthur Ashe

  Sports, Believe, Men

  "Days of Grace: A Memoir". Book by Arthur Ashe and Arnold Rampersad (p. 186), May 1, 1994.

  7 Copy quote

• I have always tried to be true to myself, to pick those battles I felt were important. My ultimate responsibility is to myself. I could never be anything else.

  Arthur Ashe

  Motivational, Sports, Responsibility

  Arthur Ashe, Neil Amdur (1981). “Off the court”, Dutton Adult

  17 Copy quote

• Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.

  Arthur Ashe

  Sports, Thinking, Play

  30 Copy quote

• It doesn't have to glitter to be gold.

  Arthur Ashe

  Gold, Glitter

  15 Copy quote

• A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.

  Arthur Ashe

  Wise, Decision, Persons

  8 Copy quote

• Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

  Arthur Ashe

  Racism, Black History, African American

  18 Copy quote

• Having grown up in a segregated environment in the south I know what it's like to be stepped on, I know what it's like also to see some black hero do well in the face of adversity.

  Arthur Ashe

  Hero, Adversity, Black

  9 Copy quote

• I would like to flood South Africa with black personages of all sorts of persuasions: writers, educators, businessmen, you name it. If you are black and have any clout at all, I would like to see you go to South Africa and look for yourself and come back and try to use the tools that you have at your command to try and help the brothers down there.

  Arthur Ashe

  Brother, Names, Black

  13 Copy quote

• I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments. That's no contribution to society. [Tennis] was purely selfish; that was for me.

  Arthur Ashe

  Selfish, Accomplishment, Tennis

  5 Copy quote

• You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.

  Arthur Ashe

  Sports, Sacrifice, Want

  6 Copy quote

• Drummed into me, above all, by my dad, by the whole family, was that without your good name, you would be nothing.

  Arthur Ashe

  Dad, Names, Would Be

  5 Copy quote

• Sometimes, a defeat can be more beautiful and satisfying than certain victories. The English have a point in insisting that it matters not who won or lost, but how you played the game.

  Arthur Ashe

  Beautiful, Games, Victory

  8 Copy quote

• You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong.

  Arthur Ashe

  Strong, Sorry, Life Is Short

  5 Copy quote

• ...I spent many, many hours in...libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were.

  Arthur Ashe

  Library, Lasts, Hours

  6 Copy quote

• I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports.

  Arthur Ashe

  Sports, Time, Children

  52 Copy quote

• It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder.

  Arthur Ashe

  Winning, Player, Tennis

  5 Copy quote

• I have always drawn strength from being close to home.

  Arthur Ashe

  Sports, Home

  4 Copy quote

• Someone once told me that God figured that I was a pretty good juggler. I could keep a lot of balls in the air at one time. So He said, "Let's see if he can juggle another one."

  Arthur Ashe

  Time, Air, Balls

  6 Copy quote

• We blacks look for leadership in men and women of such youth and inexperience, as well as poverty of education and character, that it is no wonder that we sometimes seem rudderless.... We see basketball players and pop singers as possible role models, when nothing could be further, in most cases, from their capacities.

  Arthur Ashe

  Leadership, Basketball, Education

  9 Copy quote

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