Arthur Ashe Quotes

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

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

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.

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.

Start where you are, use what you have.

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

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life.

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

You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that.

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

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.

I have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries.

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

It doesn't have to glitter to be gold.

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

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

Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.

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

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.

I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments.

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

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

You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.

If you're paid before you walk on the court, what's the point in playing as if your life depended on it?

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.

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.

Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.

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.

My humanity, in common with all of God's children, gives the greatest flight to my full range of my possibilities.

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

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.

...I spent many, many hours in...libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were.

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."

A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.

It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder.

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'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.

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.

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?

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.