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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 Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man (1970)

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More quotes by Jesse Owens

Hitler didn't snub me; it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.

The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.

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, Champion Athlete (1990)

To a sprinter, the hundred-yard dash is over in three seconds, not nine or ten.

Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)

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

Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)

All Jesse Owens quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jesse Owens (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.