The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.
JESSE OWENSThe battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.
JESSE OWENSI had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals.
JESSE OWENSIt all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it’s close.
JESSE OWENSHe was constantly on me about the job that I was to do and the responsibility that I had upon the campus. And how I must be able to carry myself because people were looking.
JESSE OWENSThe secret is, first, get a thoroughbred horse because they are the most nervous animals on earth. Then get the biggest gun you can find and make sure the starter fires that big gun right by the nervous thoroughbred’s ear.
JESSE OWENSThe black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers – weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there’s money inside. There’s where the power lies.
JESSE OWENSI decided I wasn’t going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.
JESSE OWENSWe all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
JESSE OWENSOnly by Gods grace have I made it to see today and only by Gods grace will I ever see tomorrow.
JESSE OWENSPeople come out to see you perform and you’ve got to give them the best you have within you.
JESSE OWENSI wanted no part of politics. And I wasn’t in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I’d learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.
JESSE OWENSThe only victory that counts is the one over yourself.
JESSE OWENSHitler didn’t snub me – it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.
JESSE OWENSAfter I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.
JESSE OWENSFriendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
JESSE OWENSTo a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.
JESSE OWENS