28 Inspiring Quotes By Billie Jean King That Will Help You Defy All Odds

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.

  

Be bold if you are going to make an error make a doozy.

  

Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.

  

Sometimes you have to be satisfied. You try hard enough. Don't be so self-critical; don't be so hard on yourself. (Shape your Self by M. Navratilova)

  

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

  

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.

  

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.

  

I always liked co-ed events best so we have two men and two women on each team.

  

I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.

  

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.

  

The main thing is to care. Care very hard, even if it is only a game you are playing.

  

Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.

  

Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

It's just really important that we start celebrating our differences. Let's start tolerating first, but then we need to celebrate our differences.

  

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.

  

I wanted to use sports for social change.

  

Any therapist will tell you that when you're ready, you will come out. To be outed means you weren't ready.

  

A girl didn't get an athletic scholarship until the fall of 1972 for the very first time.

  

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.

  

That is where the power, opportunity, and choice come from-when you have money. Money equals opportunity. There is no question.

  

I used to be told if I talked about my sexuality in any way that we wouldn't have a tennis tour.

  

Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.

  

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.

  

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.