Clothes and manners do not make the...
Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
It’s an abnormal world I live in. I don’t belong anywhere. It’s like I’m floating down the middle. I’m never quite sure where I am.
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 on.
Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone.
Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries.
If I don’t ask “Why me?” after my victories, I cannot ask “Why me?” after my setbacks and disasters.
Drummed into me, above all, by my dad, by the whole family, was that without your good name, you would be nothing.
Having grown up in a segregated environment in the south I know what it’s like to be stepped on, I know what it’s like also to see some black hero do well in the face of adversity.
You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don’t feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong.
In America you’re conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ’s sake?
We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and or young, our women as well as our men.
I take the good with the bad, and I try to face them both with as much calm and dignity as I can muster.
Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.
A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It’s the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete.
I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do.
I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now.
When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you.
Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you’re behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.
Believe me, most people resist change, even when it promises to be for the better. But change will come, and if you acknowledge this simple but indisputable fact of life, and understand that you must adjust to all change, then you will have a head start.