Julius Erving Quotes

In 1981, at age 31, I was voted the best player in basketball, and the most valuable player in the league. ~ Julius Erving

The first professional game that I ever played remains, to me, the most exciting moment of my professional career. ~ Julius Erving

I demand more from myself than anybody could ever expect. ~ Julius Erving

The ones who become stars or superstars are the ones who have a head on their shoulders and know how to use it. ~ Julius Erving

Being a professional," Julius Erving once said, "is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them."16 ~ Daniel H. Pink

I demand more of myself than anyone else could ever expect. ~ Julius Erving

To be an innovator, you can't be worried about making mistakes. ~ Julius Erving

And I continued to grow until I was 25 years old. ~ Julius Erving

When I went to Philadelphia I was 26 years old and really sitting on top of the world. Family life, a professional career, plenty of friends and associates, and a good reputation, a wish list that could be the envy of many. ~ Julius Erving

I think that my God-given physical attributes, big hands, and big feet, the way that I'm built, proportion-wise, just made basketball the most inviting sport for me to play. ~ Julius Erving

They are taking steps, but they are baby steps. ~ Julius Erving

To be great we need to win games we aren't supposed to win. ~ Julius Erving

I've always tried to tell myself that the work itself is the thing, that win, lose, or draw, the work is really what counts. ~ Julius Erving

One of the most predictable things in life is there will be change. You are better off if you can have a say in the change. But you are ignorant or naive if you don't think there will be change, whether you want it to or not. ~ Julius Erving

Goals determine what your going to be ~ Julius Erving

Because of the makeup of the NBA, it cannot afford for the public to turn on them. ~ Julius Erving

Attitude is altitude. ~ Julius Erving

If you're not doing what is best for your body, you are the one who lose. ~ Julius Erving

I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity. ~ Julius Erving

I wanted to undertake the challenge of daring to be great. ~ Julius Erving

So much of becoming a good athlete involves bringing other things to the table, other than physical skills. It involves intelligence, it involves many of the things that you learn during the process of being educated. How to analyze, how to assess, how to equate, how to reason. ~ Julius Erving

[On writing:] "There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.'"
(One On 1, interview with Budd Mishkin; NY1, March 25, 2007.) ~ David Halberstam

Being a typical Pisces, I might have experienced mood shifts, but I don't remember any depression, or needing to do anything, or to have someone bring me out of being depressed. ~ Julius Erving

I always try to keep a pretty conservative demeanor on the court. ~ Julius Erving

LA Clippers should come to Louisville ~ Julius Erving

You can feel the vibes, feel the people pulling for you. ~ Julius Erving

The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical. ~ Julius Erving

If you do things with a certain type of result and cause a certain type of reaction or effect, then you increase your market value. It's very much a competition for the entertainment dollar, and that's never been more clearly evident than in today's NBA game. ~ Julius Erving

You know, just in terms of having to have a life on the road, you know, having the celebrity aspect be a burden for my family, friends and extended family. ~ Julius Erving

I started playing professional basketball in 1971, and I played professionally for five seasons before going to Philadelphia. ~ Julius Erving

But you know, if you live an affluent lifestyle, there are all types of trappings that are there that you have to be cognizant of, and you've got to try and communicate freely and gain understanding about and then keep moving on, because you know, sometimes lifestyles are chosen for us as opposed to us choosing them. ~ Julius Erving

And from the first time I picked up a basketball at age eight - I had a lot of difficulty when I first picked up a basketball, because I was a scrub - there were things that I liked about it. ~ Julius Erving

Goals determine what you're going to be. ~ Julius Erving

I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals. ~ Julius Erving

I think I was chosen by basketball, although I never really physically got drafted to any team that I played for. ~ Julius Erving

I didn't want to become a reserve player, or a bench player, and it was time to move on and take on another challenge. ~ Julius Erving

My mom is one of 14 children. She's a great lady. She's a Taurus. Has been a profound influence in my life, still is to this day. Born in meager surroundings in rural South Carolina. ~ Julius Erving

With the crowds on your side, it's easier to play up to your potential. ~ Julius Erving

Right up until the time I retired at age 37, I felt like there were still things that I could do better. ~ Julius Erving

As a kid, I played a lot of one-on-none. ~ Julius Erving

One of the things in the back of my mind is that, after my sports experience, I never want to be, totally consumed by any one endeavor, other than my family life. ~ Julius Erving

Goals determine what you are going to be ~ Julius Erving

There's the typical books, Moby Dick and, I guess in my adult life I began to read biographies more than fiction. I started to want to relate to other people's lives, things that had really happened. ~ Julius Erving

That was just my own personal program: I didn't want to get too high over the good moments because I didn't want to be saddened and depressed when things didn't go as I had planned. ~ Julius Erving

In a lot of areas of my life, particularly in my teenage years, I began to think about the world, and to think about the universe as being a part of my conscious everyday life. ~ Julius Erving

I am very proud to be featured, especially when you consider the outstanding champions who have had this honor. It is great company to be in. ~ Julius Erving

If you've experienced having control, you don't want to be moved to a subordinate position, if you have your druthers. ~ Julius Erving

I grabbed 19 rebounds in my first professional game, and somehow found a way to score 20 points. I felt real good about it. I felt that this was the beginning of something good. ~ Julius Erving

I liked the game, I enjoyed the game, and the game fed me enough, and gave me enough rewards to reinforce that this is something that I should spend time doing, and that I could possibly make a priority in my life, versus other sports. ~ Julius Erving

We remember with our emotions. The things that were important in our emotional life, that's what we remember. ~ Julius Lester

The Roman historian Plutarch estimated that the civilized Romans under Julius Caesar, in his decade-long campaign in Gaul, destroyed 800 towns and villages and enslaved 3 million people. ~ Mark Kurlansky

A new question for the psychotherapist to ask is whether a theory can go beyond mere effectiveness in achieving either a so-called cure or even personal growth into its implications for the nature of an evolving society. ~ Erving Polster

The mind is like a sheet of white paper in this, that the impressions it receives the oftenest, and retains the longest, are black ones. ~ Julius Charles Hare

His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN! ~ William Shakespeare

For the earliest period of the history of Israel, all that precedes the building of the temple, not a trace can be found of any sanctuary of exclusive legitimacy. ~ Julius Wellhausen

Your secret behavior will be inherited by your children! If Nelson Mandela was a symbol of reconciliation; then reconciliation is our character. If Kwame Nkrumah was a symbol of unity; then unity is our character. If Patrice Lumumba was a symbol of patriotism; then patriotism is our character. If Robert Mugabe is a symbol of dictatorship; then dictatorship is our character. If Haile Selassie was a symbol of heroism; then heroism is our character. If Samora Machel was a symbol of socialism; then socialism is our character. If Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a symbol of justice; then justice is our character. We are the children of the African patriarchs! They are the fathers of the African nations! We have inherited their secret behaviors. ~ Enock Maregesi

Benevolence today has become altogether too huge an undertaking to be conducted otherwise than on business lines. ~ Julius Rosenwald

O Judgment ! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason ! ~ William Shakespeare

When confronted by a 'believer' it is easy for me to contrast the views of the skeptic with those of the rationalist. I simply reach into my pocket and pull out my change.

Holding a quarter aloft, I say, 'This is a most remarkable coin, for it is heavier than all the sins of humanity committed since the beginning of the human race.'

I then hold up a nickel and say, 'This coin is even more amazing, as it is brighter and shinier than the flames that proceeded from the Burning Bush discovered on Mt. Sinai by Moses.'

Then I raise a penny and state, 'This portrait of President Lincoln is more realistic and true-to-life than any portrait of Satan ever painted.'

And finally, I hold out a bright, shiny dime and say, 'And this dime is the most amazing of all because it is heavier and contains more precious metals than all the gold bricks in the streets of Heaven.'

I end with 'Give to Caesar what is his, and hold the rest of it dear - for it is all you see and touch - and the Christian god can take care of all his things, for they amount to less than this 41 cents I hold here in my hand. ~ E. Haldeman-Julius

We have not to fear anything, except fear itself. ~ Julius Caesar

The Empress Sabina had long ago formed her own theory about the nonsense in travel books. No traveler, having gone to the expense and trouble of venturing where most civilized people were too sensible to go, was going to come home and admit that it had been a waste of time. Instead, he had to pronounce his destination to be full of strange wonders, like the elk with no knees that could be caught by sabotaging the tree against which it leaned when it slept (Julius Caesar) or the men from India who could wrap themselves in their own ears (reported by the elder Pliny, who seemed to have written down everything he was ever told), or the blue-skinned Britons (Julius Caesar again).
Strangely, no traveler had ever brought one of these creatures home for inspection. Doubtless they were impossible to capture, or died on the journey, or the blue came off in the wash. ~ Ruth Downie

When the Jews speak of humanity, they mean only the totality of Jews. ~ Julius Streicher

I am in awe, in admiration of the man who Gaius Julius Caesar was. I don't actually do him as the man himself. He is maybe a distant relative. It's hard to approach the real man because he is such an awesome icon. ~ Karl Urban

In Soviet-Russia the Jew is forging the tool with which he wants to enslave Europe. ~ Julius Streicher

You can arrest me, but you can't arrest my ideas. ~ Julius Malema

Perhaps the individual is so viable a god because he can actually understand the ceremonial significance of the way he is treated, and quite on his own can respond dramatically to what is proffered him. In contacts between such deities there is no need for middlemen; each of these gods is able to serve as his own priest. ~ Erving Goffman

While the subject matter is lynching, on a deeper level, this novel is about identity. Whom and what we identify ourselves with determines our characters, determines who we are, and what we do. ~ Julius Lester

Julius brooded. He could see Julius despising the medical school of Pavia. Tobie said, Nicholas managed the journey from Flanders all right. Deferred to you, joked discreetly with me, got on like a dyeworks on fire with the muleteers. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

What a pity it is that there are so many words! Whenever one wants to say anything, three or four ways of saying it run into one's head together; and one can't tell which to choose. It is as troublesome and puzzling as choosing a ribbon ... or a husband. ~ Julius Charles Hare

"Would you tax God?" asks a defender of church tax exemption. Well, if there were a God he should be able to pay his own way and support his own business. If not, then he should do like other business men and close up shop. ~ E. Haldeman-Julius

To no kind of begging are people so averse, as to begging pardon; that is, when there is any serious ground for doing so. ~ Julius Charles Hare

Ah! fraudful malice! how shall wisdom's care Escape the poison of thy gilded snare! ~ William Julius Mickle

Be careful of your Golden Glitter
It may shine upon your Baby Sitter ~ Frank Julius

I don't think we should stop emphasizing race because I think, you know, race is still very, very important, and we have to recognize that and continue to introduce programs to address racial inequities. But we have to widen our vision and also address the growing problems of economic class. ~ William Julius Wilson

... Because every ruler celebrated his conquests by setting torch to the nearest library. Did not Julius Caesar incinerate the scrolls in the great library at Alexandria during his campaign against the republicans in Africa? Or General Stilicho, leader of the Vandals, order the burning of the Sybillene prophecies in Rome? ~ Ross King

And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind is closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and do it gladly so. ~ Julius Caesar

When we removed your son, we replaced him with nothing! ~ Julius Malema

There is a relation between persons and role. But the relationship answers to the interactive system - to the frame - in which the role is performed and the self of the performer is glimpsed. Self, then, is not an entity half-concealed behind events, but a changeable formula for managing oneself during them. Just as the current situation prescribes the official guise behind which we will conceal ourselves, so it provides where and how we will show through, the culture itself prescribing what sort of entity we must believe ourselves to be in order to have something to show through in this manner. ~ Erving Goffman

The influences that have lifted the race to a higher moral level are education, freedom, leisure, the humanizing tendency of a better-supplied and more interesting life. In a word, science and liberalism ... have accomplished the very things for which religion claims the credit. ~ E. Haldeman-Julius

Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary. ~ Julius Rosenwald

Germans must fight Jews, that organized body of world criminals against whom Christ, the greatest anti-Semite of all time, had fought. ~ Julius Streicher

This we must say, that everything is economics and economic interest as mere satisfaction of physical needs had, have and always will have a subordinate role in a normal human, that beyond this sphere must be differentiated from an order of higher values, political , spiritual and heroic. ~ Julius Evola

So I ask that these papers be taken for what they merely are: exercises, trials, tryouts, a means of displaying possibilities, not establishing fact. ~ Erving Goffman

Christians are the unstable, unlettered, superstitious masses ~ Pope Julius II

Each of us is comprised of stories, stories not only about ourselves but stories about ancestors we never knew and people we've never met. We have stories we love to tell and stories we have never told anyone. The extent to which others know us is determined by the stories we choose to share. We extend a deep trust to someone when we say, "I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone." Sharing stories creates trust because through stories we come to a recognition of how much we have in common. ~ Julius Lester