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

Arthur Ashe

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Arthur Ashe
Age: 49 †
Born: 1943
Born: July 10
Died: 1993
Died: February 6
Military Officer
Tennis Player
Richmond
Virginia
Arthur Robert Ashe
Jr.
Walk
Walks
Playing
Sports
Point
Life
Depended
Court
Paid

More quotes by Arthur Ashe

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I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do.
Arthur Ashe
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I take the good with the bad, and I try to face them both with as much calm and dignity as I can muster.
Arthur Ashe
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Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.
Arthur Ashe
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Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.
Arthur Ashe
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A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.
Arthur Ashe
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Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.
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Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
Arthur Ashe
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You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.
Arthur Ashe
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I have always drawn strength from being close to home.
Arthur Ashe
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We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.
Arthur Ashe
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You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.
Arthur Ashe
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I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments.
Arthur Ashe
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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.
Arthur Ashe
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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
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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
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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.
Arthur Ashe
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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.
Arthur Ashe
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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.
Arthur Ashe
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Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis.
Arthur Ashe
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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