Talk:Jesse Owens

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• 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.

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

• 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.

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

• 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.

• In the end, it’s extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more that that, too. It starts with complete command of the fundamentals. Then it takes desire, determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. And finally, it takes a great deal of love, fairness and respect for your fellow man. Put all these together, and even if you don’t win, how can you lose?

• It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close.

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

• One chance is all you need.

• People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you. The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and a laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A lifetime of training for just 10 seconds.

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

• To me, we must learn to spell the word RESPECT. 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.

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