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Every morning, just like in Alabama, I got up with the sun, ate my breakfast even before my mother and sisters and brothers, and went to school, winter, spring, and fall alike to run and jump and bend my body this way and that for Mr. Charles Riley.

Jesse Owens

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Jesse Owens
Age: 66 †
Born: 1913
Born: September 12
Died: 1980
Died: March 31
Athletics Competitor
Olympic Athlete
Sprinter
Oakville
Albama
James Cleveland Owens
James Cleveland Jesse Owens
Even
Went
Jump
Every
Sports
Breakfast
Way
Morning
Brothers
Riley
Like
Fall
Athlete
Alabama
Running
Winter
Charles
Mother
Sun
Bend
School
Spring
Sisters
Body
Brother
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More quotes by Jesse Owens

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I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.
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It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized: I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere - one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know.
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Only by God?s grace have I made it to see today and only by God?s grace will I ever see tomorrow.
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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 athletics, according to the rules of society. If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship.
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I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.
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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 man who wasn't a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward.
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Life doesn't give you all the practice races you need.
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One chance is all you need.
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Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.
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Well, I couldn't play an instrument. I'd just stand up front and announce the numbers. They had me sing a little, but that was a horrible mistake. I can't carry a tune in a bucket. We played black theaters and nightclubs all over hell. One-nighters. Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Earle Theater in Philly - That was big time for blacks.
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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 thrill of a gold medal. One wants to win to prove himself the best.
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A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.
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I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.
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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 in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference?
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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 in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.
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I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals.
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Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it.
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It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. But the competition wasn't even fair. No man could beat a race horse, not even for 100 yards.
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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 and make sure the starter fires that big gun right by the nervous thoroughbred's ear.
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If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard.
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