Arthur Ashe Quotes
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In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?
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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.
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My humanity, in common with all of God's children, gives the greatest flight to my full range of my possibilities.
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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.
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Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.
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The best way to judge a life is to ask yourself, "Did I make the best use of the time I had?
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Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.
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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.
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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.
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Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
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When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you.
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Clothes and manners do not make the man, but where he is made they greatly improve his appearance.
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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.
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Someone once told me that God figured that I was a pretty good juggler. I could keep a lot of balls in the air at one time. So He said, "Let's see if he can juggle another one."
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True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
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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.
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The world over - 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'. And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?'
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If I don't ask "Why me?" after my victories, I cannot ask "Why me?" after my setbacks and disasters.
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I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.
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Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries.
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I'm very happy for him. . . . He was heartbroken here once, ... But that's all over now. I told him he had to face these things in life . . . to make a man of himself.
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When bright young minds can't afford college, America pays the price.
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Arthur Ashe Jr. is a true Virginia hero, and he belongs here.
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It doesn't have to glitter to be gold.