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In honor of Black History Month, we’re sharing a few quotes from black athletes that reflect on sports, competition, and society.
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” Muhammad Ali
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.” Jackie Robinson
“It doesn’t matter what your background is and where you come from, if you have dreams and goals, that’s all that matters.” Serena Williams
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, discipline, and effort.” Jesse Owens
“Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.” Doug Williams
“You have to be able to accept failure to get better.” LeBron James
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan
“Most people don’t want to change. They’re comfortable and set in their ways. But in order to change, you have to be able to agitate people at times. And I think that’s something that’s very necessary for us to improve as a country.”
Colin Kaepernick
“America is a great country. It has a lot of work to do. The bottom line is it’s easy to talk; it’s easy to have the media pick up on something, and it’s hard to have the patience to put something in place you can build on that will make sure each citizen has their equal rights.” Jim Brown
“I was built this way for a reason, so I’m going to use it.” Simone Biles
“If Shakespeare can compare all of life to a stage, maybe it’s not odd to believe that part of the play can take place on a basketball court.”
Bill Russell
