Jesse Owens Quotes

39 quotes in 627 categories

• People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you.
• One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. He stops trying to exceed his limits, and thinks he can keep winning because…
• We must respect the rights and properties of our fellowman. And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of…
• 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…
• It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close
• I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to…
• Only by God?s grace have I made it to see today and only by God?s grace will I ever see tomorrow.
• The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers - weak, empty fingers. The only time the black…
• 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…
• It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized: I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere - one that only a handful of…
• I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.
• 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…
• The secret is, first, get a thoroughbred horse because they are the most nervous animals on earth. Then get the biggest gun you can find…
• I realized now that militancy in the best sense of the word was the only answer where the black man was concerned, that any black…
• Hitler didn't snub me—it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.
• 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…
• I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals.
• The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A…
• I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.
• Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond comprehension, but it also makes you free.

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