JESSE OWENS

Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.

Find the good. It's all around you. Find it, showcase it and you'll start believing in it.

For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world.

I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.

Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.

Life doesn't give you all the practice races you need.

Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.

A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.

If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard.

One chance is all you need.

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.

Joe Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black... But neither of us could do national advertising because the South wouldn't buy it. That was the social stigma we lived under.

Only by God?s grace have I made it to see today and only by God?s grace will I ever see tomorrow.

After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.

Championships are mythical. The real champions are those who live through what they are taught in their homes and churches. The attitude that 'We've got to win' in sports must be changed. Teach your youngsters, who are the future hope of America, the importance of love, respect, dedication, determination, self-sacrifice, self-discipline and good attitude. That's the road up the ladder to the championships.

People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you.

I fought, I fought harder . . . but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over.

I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.

I always loved running.... It was something you could do by yourself and under your own power.

I always loved running... it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.

The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.