“The deed is everything; the fame is nothing.”

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.

The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.

The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.

Love does not dominate; it cultivates.

Everybody wants to be somebody, but nobody wants to grow.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as greater than he is.

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.

To be loved for what one is, that is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him; their own selves, their version of him.

Night is the other half of life, and the better half.

Behaviour is a mirror in which every one displays his own image.

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.

To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state.

People are talking about me more than they talk about Eastenders.

Some years I’m the coolest thing that ever happened, and then the next year everyone’s so over me, and I’m just so past my sell date.

Every match I go into, I’m the huge favorite. I lose a set and it’s, like, crazy.

I’m proud to be a symbol like the army knife or the mountains.

Lectures which really teach will never be popular; lectures which are popular will never really teach.

I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

I’m not a celebrity. I’m just the same Simone. I just have two Olympic Gold medals now.

As a sportsperson, the best thing is people recognising you and loving you for what you do. For me, glamour is 100 people in the hotel feeling happy to see you.