Jesse Owens Quotes

What's really hard is when you're having those more difficult days, you've got to be able to dig down deep and be able to go out there and do what it takes to be the best you can be, even on the hardest days.

It's about believing in your ability, and believing in the right way to win games. You need to stick by that, no matter how loud the crowd is or how big the game is.

My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like life itself - not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned, that the best way to manage some kinds of pain fill thoughts, is to dare them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and you find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill. So, better and worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing in the forest.

But I still think it's mind over matter in the sense that if you're strong, you can combat anything.

I have my good and bad days, but when it's tough I just push through it.

I'll always use the negativity as more motivation to work even harder and become even stronger.

Running alone is the toughest. You get to the point where you have to keep pushing yourself.

Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

When times are difficult, I tell myself, 'I'm just passing through.'

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men!

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

For me to get through the toughest periods in my life, I had to look within to find the energy to do it. I don't give up. Never have. Never will.

I'm a sports junkie, and I am interested in athletic will - how you exceed the expectations of your own performance when it counts to deliver something beyond yourself so that you can win.

I see the beauty in boxing. It teaches me strength physically, but mostly mentally. I had to learn my strength, because for so long I could have been tougher than I was.

Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop as that little girl in her first swimming pool.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.

A lot of things I've done in my life have taken incredible mental fortitude.

I've never had one of those middle of the nights when I go, 'Why me?' or 'I don't know if I can keep fighting like this.' No. Those thoughts don't even enter my mind.

I learned that deep within myself, if I fight to the end, I can always find a way to win.

When I've had injuries where there's nothing structurally wrong and I know it's just about gutting through? I have the ability to say, 'Get better. I'm good.'

Inner strength is very important.

You're going to have highs and lows, but it's how you get through the lows.

I know the position I'm in. Guys are going to try and take me out, but I got to be able to overcome it all and not let those type of things affect me.

The stuff I've seen and lived and survived. Gun to my head, cops coming to your house. I had the confidence of telling myself that I'm going to make it. Everything I've been through, I could've had a mental breakdown, but I kept it together. If I didn't have that confidence I wouldn't have made it. That confidence has nothing to do with basketball.