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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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Arthur Ashe
Age: 49 †
Born: 1943
Born: July 10
Died: 1993
Died: February 6
Military Officer
Tennis Player
Richmond
Virginia
Arthur Robert Ashe
Jr.
Thought
Something
Guess
Early
Fun
Started
Sports

More quotes by 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
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If I don't ask Why me? after my victories, I cannot ask Why me? after my setbacks and disasters.
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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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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A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.
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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Start where you are, use what you have.
Arthur Ashe
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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?
Arthur Ashe
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I have always drawn strength from being close to home.
Arthur Ashe
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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
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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 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.
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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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.
Arthur Ashe
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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.
Arthur Ashe
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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 have become convinced that we blacks spend too much time on the playing field and too little time in libraries.
Arthur Ashe
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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?'
Arthur Ashe
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When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you.
Arthur Ashe
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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.
Arthur Ashe