Arthur Ashe

“There is a terrific apprehension among some people that blacks will take over the sport... It will create problems because their behavior, speech and dress is just a completely different culture.”

“Sometimes, a defeat can be more beautiful and satisfying than certain victories. The English have a point in insisting that it matters not who won or lost, but how you played the game.”

“I would like to flood South Africa with black personages of all sorts of persuasions: writers, educators, businessmen, you name it. If you are black and have any clout at all, I would like to see you go to South Africa and look for yourself and come back and try to use the tools that you have at your command to try and help the brothers down there.”

“I accepted the face that as much as I want to lead others, and love to be around other people, in some essential way, I am something of a loner.”

“Start where you are, use what you have.”

“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.”

“Fear isn't an excuse to come to a standstill. It's the impetus to step up and strike.”

“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.”

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.”

“Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone.”

“A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.”

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

“We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.”

“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.”

“The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.”

“We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and or young, our women as well as our men.”

“It doesn't have to glitter to be gold.”

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

“My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.”

“There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis.'”

“I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now.”

“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.”

“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.”

“You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.”

“If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me.”

“There were times when I asked myself whether I was being principled or simply a coward.... I was wrapped in the cocoon of tennis early in life, mainly by blacks like my most powerful mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia. They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well. I look at photographs of the skinny, frail, little black boy that I was in the early 1950s, and I see that I was my tennis racquet and my tennis racquet was me. It was my rod and my staff.”

“Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.”

“I have always tried to be true to myself, to pick those battles I felt were important. My ultimate responsibility is to myself. I could never be anything else.”

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

“Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis.”

“I have always drawn strength from being close to home.”

“Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.”

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

“Wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.”

“With what we give, we make a life.”

“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.”

“I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do.”

“Life is like a tennis game. You can't win without serving.”

“I'm learning to use others' weaknesses. I don't hammer a man's soft spot constantly, because he may strengthen it. I just save it as a trump up my sleeve for moments when I really need a point.”

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

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

“When bright young minds can't afford college, America pays the price.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The best way to judge a life is to ask yourself, "Did I make the best use of the time I had?”

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

“Some folks call tennis a rich people's sport or a white person's game. I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do. Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis. You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.”

“Drummed into me, above all, by my dad, by the whole family, was that without your good name, you would be nothing.”

“You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong.”