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This is my career highlight. Getting to the fourth round in the U.S. Open in my first year in the U.S. Open and first year on the tour.
Arthur Ashe -
If one's reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me.
Arthur Ashe
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I'm waiting for the alarm clock to go off and I'm going to wake up, ... I can't believe how well things are going. This is a dream come true.
Arthur Ashe -
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.
Arthur Ashe -
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.
Arthur Ashe -
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
Arthur Ashe -
I have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries.
Arthur Ashe -
The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.
Arthur Ashe
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Fear isn't an excuse to come to a standstill. It's the impetus to step up and strike.
Arthur Ashe -
It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder.
Arthur Ashe -
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.
Arthur Ashe -
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.
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.
Arthur Ashe -
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.
Arthur Ashe
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Clothes and manners do not make the...
Arthur Ashe -
...I spent many, many hours in...libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were.
Arthur Ashe -
Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.
Arthur Ashe -
You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.
Arthur Ashe -
What it is controlled cool, in a way. Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
Arthur Ashe -
Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
Arthur Ashe
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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.
Arthur Ashe -
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.
Arthur Ashe -
I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others.
Arthur Ashe -
There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis.'
Arthur Ashe