“I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.”

Fear isn’t an excuse to come to a standstill. It’s the impetus to step up and strike.

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.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

When you put a lot of hard work into one goal and you achieve it, that’s a really good feeling.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

When a great man has some one object in view to be achieved in a given time, it may be absolutely necessary for him to walk out of all the common roads.

Exposure and attention make a work famous – the more you talk about it, the more attention it gets, the more validity it achieves.

The conquest of fear yields the courage of life. That is the cardinal initiation of every heroic adventure– fearlessness and achievement.

Don’t worry about looking good – worry about achieving your goals.

Leaders of men are later remembered less for the usefulness of what they have achieved than for the sweep of their endeavors.