Top 100 Billie Jean King Quotes
#1. A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
Billie Jean King
#2. It's just really important that we start celebrating our differences. Let's start tolerating first, but then we need to celebrate our differences.
Billie Jean King
#4. People say, "Do you know how much a million dollars is?" I don't have a clue. How many Big Macs will it buy me?
Billie Jean King
#5. Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It's dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great.
Billie Jean King
#6. Women's sports is still in its infancy. The beginning of women's sports in the United States started in 1972, with the passage of Title 9 for girls to finally get athletic scholarships.
Billie Jean King
#7. My whole life has been about equal rights and opportunities. For me it really goes back to the health of mind, body and soul.
Billie Jean King
#8. Men can have a huge turnover of sponsorship and still survive a lot better than the women. But the women's ratings are better, at least at home in the United States than in the men's tennis.
Billie Jean King
#9. Bobby Riggs was one of my heroes. I admired him. That's one of the reasons I beat him - because I respected him.
Billie Jean King
#10. I used to be told if I talked about my sexuality in any way that we wouldn't have a tennis tour.
Billie Jean King
#11. Winning is very tangible, it's very exciting, it's very pleasing, but it's momentary. If you can do things that last, that each generation can build upon, then that's when you're cooking.
Billie Jean King
#12. I feel that tennis is an art form that is capable of moving the players and the audience - at least a knowledgeable audience-in almost sensual ways. When I'm performing at my absolute best, I think that some of the euphoria I feel must be transmitted to the audience.
Billie Jean King
#13. I think it's impossible to judge whether another person should come out. You just hope they will on their own time and their own terms.
Billie Jean King
#14. For me, losing a tennis match isn't failure, it's research.
Billie Jean King
#16. The most important words that have helped me in life, when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are 'accept responsibility.'
Billie Jean King
#17. I will tell you King's First Law of Recognition: You never get it when you want it, and then when it comes, you get too much.
Billie Jean King
#18. In the complete overall history of tennis, I figure I'll be worth a sentence or two ... That's why my place in the all-time rankings means so very little to me, because I know I won't be anybody's number one, and it's that same old thing: if you're not number one, then what does it really matter?
Billie Jean King
#19. When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say "Why?", say "Why not?
Billie Jean King
#20. Everyone has people in their lives that are gay, lesbian or transgender or bisexual. They may not want to admit it, but I guarantee they know somebody.
Billie Jean King
#21. Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.
Billie Jean King
#22. Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose-it teaches you about life.
Billie Jean King
#23. Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.
Billie Jean King
#24. In the seventies we had to make it acceptable for people to accept girls and women as athletes. We had to make it okay for them to be active. Those were much scarier times for females in sports.
Billie Jean King
#25. In business, everything starts with integrity. Otherwise it falls apart, though it does take time to find out who has integrity.
Billie Jean King
#27. I always listen, I ask children, I even ask adults in tennis, "What are your children playing?" And most of the time it's not tennis. It's pathetic.
Billie Jean King
#28. It's really impossible for athletes to grow up. On the one hand, you're still a child, still playing a game. But on the other hand, you're a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are.
Billie Jean King
#30. I always respect right off the bat because we are human, but then over time you learn who the person truly is, just like they learn about you. Hope it works out really well, and you hope that builds a stronger connection over time. You can't be friends with everybody.
Billie Jean King
#33. When they take surveys of women in business, of the Fortune 500, the successful women, 80% of them, say they were in sports as a young woman.
Billie Jean King
#34. The main thing is not a matter of wanting to win; the main thing is being scared to lose.
Billie Jean King
#36. You have got to want to be the best before you can even begin to reach for that goal, and you have got to be prepared to sacrifice a lot to get there.
Billie Jean King
#37. Marriage isn't a 50-50 proposition very often. It's more like 100-0 one moment and 0-100 the next.
Billie Jean King
#38. Trust and respect is something you earn, not something that is given.
Billie Jean King
#39. It's your birthday today, so what would you say, if we turned that frown upside down
Billie Jean King
#40. Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn't allowed in a photo because I wasn't wearing a tennis skirt, I knew that I wanted to change the sport.
Billie Jean King
#41. It's about learning your craft. That's a wonderful thing
especially with today's consumerism and instant gratification. You can'tbuy that. It's about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don't think it's so much about becoming a tennis player. It's about becoming a person.
Billie Jean King
#42. Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.
Billie Jean King
#44. In 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it.
Billie Jean King
#45. The trouble with being number one in the world - in anything- is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don't relax and enjoy it.
Billie Jean King
#46. In 1973, women got 59 cents on the dollar; now we are getting 74 cents on the dollar. In the area of finance and business, we are at 68 cents on the dollar.
Billie Jean King
#48. I love to promote our sport. I love grass-roots tennis. I love coaching. I love all parts of the sport. I love the business side.
Billie Jean King
#49. The old boy network is still very strong and very true. Just look at the stock exchange and how many men and women are there. It is still very much run by men.
Billie Jean King
#50. If your partner wants to be private, you have to respect that.
Billie Jean King
#51. We have, or have had women presidents or prime ministers in Liberia, Chile, Germany, Great Britain ... and yet the US of A still hasn't had a women president. It's just beyond my thinking. Look at Congress ...
Billie Jean King
#53. You want people to feel like they belong to something. And not be elitist. You don't want us to be elitist.
Billie Jean King
#54. Love, light & blessings be On this day I wish to say 'Health & Happiness to come your way' Happy Birthday
Billie Jean King
#55. I've never cared that much for cementing my place in history. Sports is so transitory, so ephemeral. It just seems like so much nonsense comparing me to Helen Wills Moody or Suzanne Lenglen or anybody else from some other time. One lesson you learn from sports is that life goes on without you.
Billie Jean King
#56. It is very hard to be a female leader. While it is assumed that any man, no matter how tough, has a soft side ... and female leader is assumed to be one-dimensional.
Billie Jean King
#57. Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it.
Billie Jean King
#58. I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.
Billie Jean King
#59. It's important to try to get people to think about women's wellness.
Billie Jean King
#60. Any therapist will tell you that when you're ready, you will come out. To be outed means you weren't ready.
Billie Jean King
#61. I didn't really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.
Billie Jean King
#62. Female athletes are stereotyped by the general population
and usually as homosexuals.
Billie Jean King
#63. Tennis taught me so many lessons in life. One of the things it taught me is that every ball that comes to me, I have to make a decision. I have to accept responsibility for the consequences every time I hit a ball.
Billie Jean King
#64. Martina's gone with people who don't want to be out, and it drives her crazy because she'd rather be open.
Billie Jean King
#65. I try to perfect my strong points and make my weaknesses adequate.
Billie Jean King
#67. When you oppress people either by gender, by race, by sexual orientation, when you do that and the doors become ajar, they will fly open and they will come and they have.
Billie Jean King
#68. I like putting money back into what made my life, and tennis has been great to me.
Billie Jean King
#70. I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.
Billie Jean King
#71. Our love one's are never gone, they have just popped into another room.
Billie Jean King
#72. You've got to win in sports - that's talent - but you've also got to learn how to remind everybody how you did win, and how often. That comes with experience.
Billie Jean King
#73. I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.
Billie Jean King
#75. Reputation is what others think about you. What's far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.
Billie Jean King
#76. That is where the power, opportunity, and choice come from-when you have money. Money equals opportunity. There is no question.
Billie Jean King
#77. There is no life for girls in team sports past Little League. I got into tennis when I realized this, and because I thought golf would be too slow for me, and I was too scared to swim.
Billie Jean King
#78. It's fun to meet people from throughout the world who you don't have to explain yourself to.
Billie Jean King
#79. Don't go into debt and don't spend a lot. It's not how much money you make, it's how much you spend.
Billie Jean King
#80. I would just never out anybody. I think everyone has to find it in their own way and their own time.
Billie Jean King
#81. I have a lot to say, and if I'm not No. 1, I can't say it.
Billie Jean King
#82. I think younger players probably just think they are who they are-they don't think about coming out. Unless you're number one in the world, nobody cares, usually.
Billie Jean King
#83. No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win-and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.
Billie Jean King
#84. Men still get a lot more opportunity. It is still a big part of the old boy network. They have more companies they can get money from.
Billie Jean King
#86. A girl didn't get an athletic scholarship until the fall of 1972 for the very first time.
Billie Jean King
#87. I knew after my first lesson what I wanted to do with my life.
Billie Jean King
#88. Martina and I went through a very bad five years. Everything's very good between us now, but it was a long haul.
Billie Jean King
#89. They're not put on earth to be martyrs; they have to want to come out. It depends on your culture, where you work, where you live. Each person's circumstances are unique.
Billie Jean King
#90. Ladies, here's a hint. If you're up against a girl with big boobs, bring her to the net and make her hit backhand volleys. That's the hardest shot for the well-endowed.
Billie Jean King
#91. I was always in the tennis business-from 1968. I was in tournaments and also on World Team Tennis teams as well.
Billie Jean King
#92. The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.
Billie Jean King
#93. Being Number One isn't everything to me, but for those few hours on the court it's way ahead of whatever's in second place.
Billie Jean King
#94. I always liked co-ed events best so we have two men and two women on each team.
Billie Jean King
#95. As far as U.S. tennis, we need new stars coming up in the pipeline, but I don't know if we have it.
Billie Jean King
#97. I would love to be a player today. I had the right personality for it.
Billie Jean King
#98. Ask Nureyev to stop dancing, ask Sinatra to stop singing, then you can ask me to stop playing.
Billie Jean King
#99. Each point I play is in the now moment. The last point means nothing, the next point means nothing.
Billie Jean King
#100. Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity.
Billie Jean King
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