“There is a terrific apprehension among some people that blacks will take over the sport… It will create problems because their behavior, speech and dress is just a completely different culture.”

There is a syndrome in sports called ‘paralysis by analysis.’

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.

I have always drawn strength from being close to home.

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

The best way to judge a life is to ask yourself, “Did I make the best use of the time I had?

A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.

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

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

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.”

If you’re paid before you walk on the court, what’s the point in playing as if your life depended on it?

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.

There is a terrific apprehension among some people that blacks will take over the sport… It will create problems because their behavior, speech and dress is just a completely different culture.

We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.

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

I have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries.

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.

The problem, of course, was that [he] saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can’t love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little.

The emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor and the emancipation of labor is the freeing of that basic majority of workers who are yellow, brown and black.

The emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor and the emancipation of labor is the freeing of that basic majority of workers who are yellow, brown and black.

The emancipation of man is the emancipation of labor and the emancipation of labor is the freeing of that basic majority of workers who are yellow, brown and black.

I think sometimes what people miss about black people is that we’re complicated.

Disfranchisement is the deliberate theft and robbery of the only protection of poor against rich and black against white.

In Harlem, I got all my black friends. But when I go downtown, I got black, white, Asian, Indian friends. There’s no borders, no barriers.

I have low self-esteem and I always have. Guys always cheated on me with women who were European-looking. You know, the long-hair type. Really beautiful women that left me thinking, ‘How I can I compete with that?’ Being a regular black girl wasn’t good enough.