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

I take the good with the bad, and I try to face them both with as much calm and dignity as I can muster.

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.

When bright young minds can’t afford college, America pays the price.

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

Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

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.

It doesn’t have to glitter to be gold.

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

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.

I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports.

When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you.

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.

You’ve got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.

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.

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.

It could have been worse. I could have been born black.

I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa.

When white and black meet today, sometimes there is a ready understanding that there has been an encounter between two human beings. But often there is only, or chiefly, an awareness that Two Colors are in the room.

Negro blood is sure powerful, because just one drop of black blood makes a colored man. One drop–you are a Negro! . . . Black is powerful.

Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro – and beautiful!

One lady told me that before she saw ‘Sounder’ she didn’t believe black people could love each other, have deep relationships in the same way as white people.

A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free.

Don’t let anyone call you a minority if you’re black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You’re not less than anybody else.