It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized: I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere – one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know.
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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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.
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The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.
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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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When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.
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Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
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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.
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If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard. The thrill of competing carries with it the thrill of a gold medal. One wants to win to prove himself the best.
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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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To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.
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It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it’s close.
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I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals.
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For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.
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Life doesn’t give you all the practice races you need.
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One chance is all you need.
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It’s like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.
JESSE OWENS






