I was nervous and confident at the same, nervous about going out there in front of all those people, with so much at stake, and confident that I was going to go out there and win.

Being champion is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown.

In the field of sports you are more or less accepted for what you do rather than what you are.

No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.

Shaking hands with the Queen of England was a long way from being forced to sit in the colored section of the bus going into downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.

In sports, you simply aren't considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best.

I hope that I have accomplished just one thing: that I have been a credit to tennis and my country.

I don't want to be put on a pedestal. I just want to be reasonably successful and live a normal life with all the conveniences to make it so.

Most of us who aspire to be tops in our fields don't really consider the amount of work required to stay tops.

Winning once can be a fluke; winning twice proves you are the best.

I think I've already got the main thing I've always wanted, which is to be somebody, to have an identify. I'm Althea Gibson, the tennis champion. I hope it makes me happy.

Always follow your dreams with confidence and conviction, don’t fall for the trap of dream killers

Any sensible government must learn to unleash the energy of its people and get them to perform instead of trying to get a bureaucracy to perform.

Live now believe me wait not till tomorrow gather the roses of life today.

I don't want to do business with those who don't make a profit, because they can't give the best service.

I would like just one time to be on the cover of Italian Vogue.

Poetry is engendered in solitude, so what better meter for it than the clip of a buckskin horse?

This [Judge Samuel Alito] may be one of the most significant or consequential nominations that the Senate will vote on since I've been here in the last three decades.

Too many Christians want to change the world not because they love the world but because they hate the world

Life brings sorrows and joys alike. It is what a man does with them - not what they do to him - that is the true test of his mettle.

Life's something we already understand. Death is a mystery.