“You learn about equality in history and civics, but you find out life is not really like that.”

If I didn’t play tennis I probably would have to see a psychiatrist.

I have always drawn strength from being close to home.

If one’s reputation is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me.

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.

If I were to say, ‘God, why me?’ about the bad things, then I should have said, ‘God, why me?’ about the good things that happened in my life.

Someone once told me that God figured that I was a pretty good juggler. I could keep a lot of balls in the air at one time. So He said, “Let’s see if he can juggle another one.”

I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now.

Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.

It’s an abnormal world I live in. I don’t belong anywhere. It’s like I’m floating down the middle. I’m never quite sure where I am.

A wise person decides slowly but abides by these decisions.

The best way to judge a life is to ask yourself, “Did I make the best use of the time I had?

I don’t want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments. That’s no contribution to society. Tennis was purely selfish; that was for me.

It is not just the more talented player who wins. Some players may try a little harder.

You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.

Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke.

If you’re paid before you walk on the court, what’s the point in playing as if your life depended on it?

I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.

In the adjustment of the new order of things, we women demand an equal voice; we shall accept nothing less.

There are whole precincts of voters in this country whose united intelligence does not equal that of one representative American woman.

Women are not going to be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.

We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.

The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights

We need to see men and women as equal partners, but its hard to think of movies that do that. When I talk to people, they think of movies of forty-five years ago! Hepburn and Tracy!

There are many ways of supporting gender equality, from something as simple as paid sick leave and flexible work hours to attributing an economic value to all care-giving, and making that amount tax deductible.