"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."
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Quote collection
Billie Jean King quotes (page 1 of 6)
113 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it."
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"I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion."
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"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."
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"Champions keep playing until they get it right."
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"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."
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"Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It's dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great."
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"The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing."
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"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."
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"Reputation is what others think about you. What's far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself."
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"My whole life has been about equal rights and opportunities. For me it really goes back to the health of mind, body and soul."
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"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."
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"Pressure is a privilege ... it's what you do with it that matters."
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"A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning."
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"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."
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"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."
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"Don't let anyone define you. You define yourself."
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"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."
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"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."
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"I was always in the tennis business-from 1968. I was in tournaments and also on World Team Tennis teams as well."
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