Arthur Ashe: I have always drawn strength from being close to home.

Start where you are, use what you have.

Arthur Ashe

motivational positive inspirational

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

Arthur Ashe

teaching kindness inspirational

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

Arthur Ashe

success motivational inspirational

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

Arthur Ashe

memorial-day hero courage

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

pain play children

You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.

Arthur Ashe

motivation winning life

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.

Arthur Ashe

success motivational inspirational

Life is like a tennis game. You can't win without serving.

Arthur Ashe

tennis games winning

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

forgiving helping-others joy

Wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.

Arthur Ashe

cheer heart fall

Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.

Arthur Ashe

confidence softball winning

Fear isn't an excuse to come to a standstill. It's the impetus to step up and strike.

Arthur Ashe

fear motivational inspirational

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

friendship hands enemy

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

failure sports life

Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.

Arthur Ashe

play sports thinking

The best way to judge a life is to ask yourself, "Did I make the best use of the time I had?

Arthur Ashe

judging use way

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

faces attitude trying

There were times when I asked myself whether I was being principled or simply a coward.... I was wrapped in the cocoon of tennis early in life, mainly by blacks like my most powerful mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia. They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well. I look at photographs of the skinny, frail, little black boy that I was in the early 1950s, and I see that I was my tennis racquet and my tennis racquet was me. It was my rod and my staff.

Arthur Ashe

virginia powerful boys

My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.

Arthur Ashe

diversity race sports

There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis.'

Arthur Ashe

syndromes analysis sports