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

Only by God?s grace have I made it to see today and only by God?s grace will I ever see tomorrow.

I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.

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.

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?

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.

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.