I always think it’s best to pretend you’re in a tenuous position. Just as a player, you always want to stay in the now and work hard but also have goals for the future.
BILLIE JEAN KINGA champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.
More Billie Jean King Quotes
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I would have them do their skill drills as a team and their fun drills together as a team, then they have to have a match at the end of every week. They can’t just have what they call a lesson today every week.
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As far as U.S. tennis, we need new stars coming up in the pipeline, but I don’t know if we have it.
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In 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it.
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Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.
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In business, everything starts with integrity. Otherwise it falls apart, though it does take time to find out who has integrity.
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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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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.
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In the complete overall history of tennis, I figure I’ll be worth a sentence or two….
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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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When a child signs up for tennis, he or she is put on a team. I put them in a circle and then I make sure they name their own team.
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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.
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I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.
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I would love to be a player today. I had the right personality for it.
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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.
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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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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.
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No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.
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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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You just know where to put the ball. You just feel it. It has been computed into your brain so many times it is there.
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I always liked co-ed events best so we have two men and two women on each team.
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When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say “Why?”, say “Why not?
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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.
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Marriage isn’t a 50-50 proposition very often. It’s more like 100-0 one moment and 0-100 the next.
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I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.
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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