Quote Origin: True Heroism is Not the Urge To Surpass All Others At Whatever Cost, But the Urge To Serve Others At Whatever Cost

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Arthur Ashe? Apocryphal?

Tennis racquet and ball lying on a court from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: A famous tennis player once discussed the topic of valor. He stated that heroism was not based on a desire to surpass others, but on a desire to serve others. A statement like this has been attributed to Arthur Ashe. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1993 a newspaper in Delaware, Ohio printed an article which contained the quotation. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1

“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,” Arthur Ashe told the Ohio Wesleyan University class of 1991 in his commencement address.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

The August 1994 “Reader’s Digest” published the quotation within a section titled “Points To Ponder”:2

ARTHUR ASHE:
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.
—From a speech

In 2001 “Random House Webster’s Quotationary” included an entry for the quotation. Ashe received credit, and the citation pointed to the August 1994 issue of “Reader’s Digest”.3

In 2003 “Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes” included the quotation with an attribution to Ashe, but no citation was presented.4

In 2013 “Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations” edited by Retha Powers included this entry:5

Arthur Ashe 1943-1993
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.
Commencement speech, Ohio Wesleyan University
[May 12, 1991]

In conclusion, Arthur Ashe deserves credit for this statement. He spoke it during a commencement address in 1991 at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Image Notes: Picture of a tennis racquet and ball lying on a court from Guilherme Maggieri at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Sue Ferrara and Jack E. Smith whose X-twitter thread led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Ferrara helpfully pointed to the “Reader’s Digest” citation.

  1. 1993 February 8, The Delaware Gazette, Ashe ‘set standard for human beings’ by Mary Meyer (Gazette Reporter), Quote Page 1, Column 2, Delaware, Ohio. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  2. 1994 August, Reader’s Digest, Volume 145, Number 868, Points To Ponder, Quote Page 21, The Reader’s Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York.(Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
  3. 2001, Random House Webster’s Quotationary, Editor Leonard Roy Frank, Topic: Heroism, Quote Page 354,Random House, New York. (Paperback edition; Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
  4. 2003, Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes, Compiled by Bob Kelly, Topic: Heroism, Quote Page 169, Column 1, Kregel Publications: A Division of Kregel, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  5. 2013, Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations, General Editor Retha Powers, Section: Arthur Ashe, Quote Page 428, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans) ↩︎