James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens was an American track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympic Games. Profoundly inspirational James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.
Famous Jesse Owens Quotes
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. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
A lifetime of training for just ten seconds. Jesse Owens
Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
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? Jesse Owens
Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it. Jesse Owens
The only victory that counts is the one over yourself. Jesse Owens
Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust. Jesse Owens
When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. Now what’s the difference? Jesse Owens
One chance is all you need. Jesse Owens
There is something that can happen to every athlete and every human being; the instinct to slack off, to give in to pain, to give less than your best; the instinct to hope you can win through luck or through your opponent not doing his best, instead of going to the limit and past your limit where victory is always found. Defeating those negative instincts that are out to defeat us, is the difference between winning and losing and we all face that battle every day. Jesse Owens
Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness. Jesse Owens
Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust. Jesse Owens
If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
For a time, at least, I was the most famous person in the entire world. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up. Jesse Owens
One chance is all you need. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing in it. Jesse Owens
The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness. Jesse Owens
A lifetime of training for just ten seconds. Jesse Owens
People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway. Jesse Owens
Life doesn’t give you all the practice races you need. Jesse Owens
Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond comprehension, but it also makes you free. Jesse Owens
Championships are mythical. The real champions are those who live through what they are taught in their homes and churches. Jesse Owens
Hitler didn’t snub me it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram. Jesse Owens
Running is real. It’s all joy and woe, hard as diamond. It makes you weary beyond comprehension, but it also makes you free. Jesse Owens
A lifetime of training for just ten seconds. Jesse Owens
People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? Jesse Owens
Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust. Jesse Owens
The only bond worth anything between human beings is their humanness. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard. Jesse Owens
When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany. Jesse Owens
I fought, I fought harder but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over. Jesse Owens
One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. He stops trying to exceed his limits, and thinks he can keep winning because of his lucky star, or the bad luck of his opponents. You must overcome this negative instinct, which affects all of us, and which is the only difference between the person who wins a race, and those who lose. This is the battle you have to fight every day of your life. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
Joe, Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black. Jesse Owens
If you don’t try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody’s back yard. Jesse Owens
Only by God’s grace have I made it to see today and only by God’s grace will I ever see tomorrow. Jesse Owens
People who worked with me or knew me still called me the world’s fastest human because I almost never stopped. I’d found that I could get more done with no regular job or regular hours at all, but by being on my own, flying to speak here, help with a public relations campaign for some client there, tape my regular jazz radio show one morning at 5:00 a.m. before leaving on a plane for another city or another continent three hours later to preside over a major sporting event. Jesse Owens
If it’s clay, it pretty much means it was here before 10,000 B.C. Most archaeologists don’t believe humans were in North America that early. Jesse Owens
I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up. Jesse Owens
One chance is all you need. Jesse Owens
I fought, I fought harder but one cell at a time, panic crept into my body, taking me over. Jesse Owens
Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Jesse Owens
Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust. Jesse Owens
I realized now that militancy in the best sense of the word was the only answer where the black man was concerned, that any black man who wasn’t a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward. Jesse Owens
We used to have a lot of fun. We never had any problems. We always ate. The fact that we didn’t have steak? Who had steak? Jesse Owens
To a sprinter, the hundred yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten. The first second is when you come out of the blocks. The next is when you look up and take your first few strides to attain gain position. By that time the race is actually about half over. The final second the longest slice of time in the world for an athlete is that last half of the race, when you really bear down and see what you’re made of. It seems to take an eternity, yet is all over before you can think what’s happening. Jesse Owens
It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. Jesse Owens
I decided I wasn’t going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever. Jesse Owens
Every morning, just like in Alabama, I got up with the sun, ate my breakfast even before my mother and sisters and brothers, and went to school, winter, spring, and fall alike to run and jump and bend my body this way and that for Mr. Charles Riley. Jesse Owens
It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it’s close. Jesse Owens
It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know. Jesse Owens
I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals. Jesse Owens
It’s like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies, you miss it. Jesse Owens
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. Jesse Owens
I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up. Jesse Owens
Life doesn’t give you all the practice races you need. Jesse Owens
I’m old now. It’s all right. Jesse Owens
He was constantly on me about the job that I was to do and the responsibility that I had upon the campus. And how I must be able to carry myself because people were looking. Jesse Owens
There is something that can happen to every athlete and every human being; the instinct to slack off, to give in to the pain, to give less than your best. Jesse Owens
In the space of less than seven days, I attended a track meet in Boston, flew from there to Bowling Green for the National Jaycees, then to Rochester for the blind, Buffalo for another track meet, New York to shoot a film called The Black Athlete, Miami for Ford Motor Company, back up to New York for 45 minutes to deliver a speech, then into L. A. for another the same night. Jesse Owens
One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. Jesse Owens
It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know. Jesse Owens
