After 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 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.
More Jesse Owens Quotes
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When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. Now what’s the difference?
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I 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.
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Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
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We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
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I decided I wasn’t going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.
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Life doesn’t give you all the practice races you need.
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I’d noticed him watching me for a year or so, especially when we’d play games where there was running or jumping.
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For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.
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Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
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Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it.
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If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard.
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He 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.
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I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals.
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I fought, I fought harder, but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over.
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Although I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.
JESSE OWENS