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 ASHESeven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.
More Arthur Ashe Quotes
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Start where you are, use what you have.
ARTHUR ASHE -
In America you’re conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ’s sake?
ARTHUR ASHE -
It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Start where you are, use what you have.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries.
ARTHUR ASHE -
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 -
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I accepted the face that as much as I want to lead others, and love to be around other people, in some essential way, I am something of a loner.
ARTHUR ASHE -
With what we give, we make a life.
ARTHUR ASHE -
You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.
ARTHUR ASHE -
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I’m learning to use others’ weaknesses. I don’t hammer a man’s soft spot constantly, because he may strengthen it. I just save it as a trump up my sleeve for moments when I really need a point.
ARTHUR ASHE -
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
ARTHUR ASHE -
A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It’s the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do.
ARTHUR ASHE -
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 -
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 -
I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.
ARTHUR ASHE -
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 -
I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others.
ARTHUR ASHE -
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Martina’s like the old Green Bay Packers. You know exactly what she’s going to do, but there isn’t a thing you can do about it.
ARTHUR ASHE -
My humanity, in common with all of God’s children, gives the greatest flight to my full range of my possibilities.
ARTHUR ASHE -
If I don’t ask “Why me?” after my victories, I cannot ask “Why me?” after my setbacks and disasters.
ARTHUR ASHE