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.
--
Interview (1971); also quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz in ESPN SportsCentury.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
"Measuring national prestige by gold medals is like using Viagra to judge the potency of a man."
Ai Weiwei
Upon the floor uncounted medals lay
Like things of little value; here and there
Stood golden caldrons, that might well outweigh
The biggest midst an emperor's copper-ware,
And golden cups were set on tables fair,
Themselves of gold; and in all hollow things
Were stored great gems, worthy the crowns of kings.William Morris
This generation of Filipinos fought a foreign power that invaded us. I think all of them are entitled to be buried in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani. Regardless of whether medals or no medals he, as a soldier who fought that war, is entitled to be buried in Libingan, and I am not denigrating the people who are denying that right or objecting to it. I don’t think they ever saw the muzzles of the guns of a foreign enemy and confronted them.
Ferdinand Edralin Marcos
Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold.Thomas Hood
Owens, Jesse
Owens, Terrell
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