Arthur Ashe Quotes

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

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.

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 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.

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?’

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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