I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

I don't care who you are, you're going to choke in certain matches. You get to a point where your legs don't move and you can't take a deep breath. You start to hit the ball about a yard wide, instead of inches.

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.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.

When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you.

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.

You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that.

I accepted the face that as much as I want to lead others, and love to be around other people, in some essential way, I am something of a loner.

I have always drawn strength from being close to home.

If you're paid before you walk on the court, what's the point in playing as if your life depended on it?

A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.

I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now.

There is a syndrome in sports called "paralysis by analysis."

I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.

Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.

I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments.

I have tried to keep on with my striving because this is the only hope I have of ever achieving anything worthwhile and lasting.

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.

I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do.

If I were to say, "God, why me?" about the bad things, then I should have said, "God, why me?" about the good things that happened in my life.

Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.

When bright young minds can't afford college, America pays the price.

Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis.

Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.

My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.

Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone.

If I were to say, 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said, 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life.

There is a syndrome in sports called 'paralysis by analysis.'

You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

Clothes and manners do not make the man but when he is made they greatly improve his appearance.

Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be Number 1.

You learn about equality in history and civics but you find out life is not really like that.

Fear isnt an excuse to come to a standstill. Its the impetus to step up and strike.

True heroism is remarkably sober very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears.

The most important training, though, is to experience life as a writer, questioning everything, inventing multiple explanations for everything. If you do that, all the other things will come; if you don't, there's no hope for you.

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it.

The only hope is that our civilization will collapse at a certain point, as always happens in history. Then, out of barbarity, a renaissance.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.