Top 90 Billie Jean King Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.”

— Billie Jean King

Featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Persistence Quotes

2. “Pressure is a privilege – it only comes to those who earn it.”

— Billie Jean King

3. “Champions adjust and pressure is a privilege.”

— Billie Jean King

4. “Trust and respect is something you earn, not something that is given.”

— Billie Jean King

5. “Create your legacy, and pass the baton.”

— Billie Jean King

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

— Billie Jean King

7. “Don’t let anyone define you. You define yourself.”

— Billie Jean King

8. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

9. “Reputation is what others think about you. What’s far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.”

— Billie Jean King

10. “A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”

— Billie Jean King

11. “No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.”

— Billie Jean King

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

— Billie Jean King

13. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

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

— Billie Jean King

15. “Don’t be afraid to hit the ball.”

— Billie Jean King

16. “Champions take responsibility.”

— Billie Jean King

17. “Sports are a microcosm of society.”

— Billie Jean King

18. “Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquillity.”

— Billie Jean King

19. “I have a lot to say, and if I’m not No. 1, I can’t say it.”

— Billie Jean King

20. “My whole life has been about equal rights and opportunities. For me it really goes back to the health of mind, body and soul.”

— Billie Jean King

21. “I try to perfect my strong points and make my weaknesses adequate.”

— Billie Jean King

22. “Each point I play is in the now moment. The last point means nothing, the next point means nothing.”

— Billie Jean King

23. “Victory is fleeting. Losing is forever.”

— Billie Jean King

24. “Marriage isn’t a 50-50 proposition very often. It’s more like 100-0 one moment and 0-100 the next.”

— Billie Jean King

25. “Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.”

— Billie Jean King

26. “I would just never out anybody. I think everyone has to find it in their own way and their own time.”

— Billie Jean King

27. “Bobby Riggs was one of my heroes. I admired him. That’s one of the reasons I beat him – because I respected him.”

— Billie Jean King

28. “Don’t worry about what people say.”

— Billie Jean King

29. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

30. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

31. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

32. “You want people to feel like they belong to something. And not be elitist. You don’t want us to be elitist.”

— Billie Jean King

33. “The most important words that have helped me in life, when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are ‘accept responsibility.’”

— Billie Jean King

34. “And if you can see it, you can be it.”

— Billie Jean King

35. “I wanted to use sports for social change.”

— Billie Jean King

36. “Our love one’s are never gone, they have just popped into another room.”

— Billie Jean King

37. “In 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it.”

— Billie Jean King

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

— Billie Jean King

39. “I’ve never cared that much for cementing my place in history. Sports is so transitory, so ephemeral. It just seems like so much nonsense comparing me to Helen Wills Moody or Suzanne Lenglen or anybody else from some other time. One lesson you learn from sports is that life goes on without you.”

— Billie Jean King

40. “I feel that tennis is an art form that is capable of moving the players and the audience – at least a knowledgeable audience-in almost sensual ways. When I’m performing at my absolute best, I think that some of the euphoria I feel must be transmitted to the audience.”

— Billie Jean King

41. “Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.”

— Billie Jean King

42. “Natural talent only determines the limits of your athletic potential. It’s dedication and a willingness to discipline your life that makes you great.”

— Billie Jean King

43. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

44. “Men still get a lot more opportunity. It is still a big part of the old boy network. They have more companies they can get money from.”

— Billie Jean King

45. “It’s important to try to get people to think about women’s wellness.”

— Billie Jean King

46. “At 62 you want to keep moving; that’s important.”

— Billie Jean King

47. “I like entrepreneurial people; I like people who take risks.”

— Billie Jean King

48. “In business, everything starts with integrity. Otherwise it falls apart, though it does take time to find out who has integrity.”

— Billie Jean King

49. “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.”

— Billie Jean King

50. “A girl didn’t get an athletic scholarship until the fall of 1972 for the very first time.”

— Billie Jean King