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 ASHEIt’s an abnormal world I live in. I don’t belong anywhere. It’s like I’m floating down the middle. I’m never quite sure where I am.
More Arthur Ashe Quotes
-
-
Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.
ARTHUR ASHE -
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 -
You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
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 -
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 -
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 have always drawn strength from being close to home.
ARTHUR ASHE -
A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I don’t care who you are, you’re going to choke in certain matches. You get to a point where your legs don’t move and you can’t take a deep breath. You start to hit the ball about a yard wide, instead of inches.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
ARTHUR ASHE -
We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.
ARTHUR ASHE -
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
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 -
Fear isn’t an excuse to come to a standstill. It’s the impetus to step up and strike.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.
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 -
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 -
My humanity, in common with all of God’s children, gives the greatest flight to my full range of my possibilities.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Life is like a tennis game. You can’t win without serving.
ARTHUR ASHE -
You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.
ARTHUR ASHE -
My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.
ARTHUR ASHE -
If I don’t ask “Why me?” after my victories, I cannot ask “Why me?” after my setbacks and disasters.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I spent many, many hours in libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were.
ARTHUR ASHE -
If you’re paid before you walk on the court, what’s the point in playing as if your life depended on it?
ARTHUR ASHE