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 ASHEIn 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?
More Arthur Ashe Quotes
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A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Seven 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.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Life is like a tennis game. You can’t win without serving.
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 -
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 -
Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.
ARTHUR ASHE -
I spent many, many hours in libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were.
ARTHUR ASHE -
Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.
ARTHUR ASHE -
If I didn’t play tennis I probably would have to see a psychiatrist.
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 -
If I were to say, ‘God, why me?’ about the bad things, then I should have said, ‘God, why me?’ about the good things that happened in my life.
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 -
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 -
It’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.
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