Martina Navratilova famous quotes

Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Funny #Sports #Running

Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Inspirational #People #Lgbt

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Autism #Perception #Matter

The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Inspirational #Commitment #Eggs

Just go out there and do what you've got to do.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Career Change

I think the key is for women not to set any limits.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Inspirational #Thinking #Keys

The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Business #Victory #Moments

I haven't bought any leather articles for a very long time. My ideal is to be able to avoid all animal products, in food as well as clothing.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Animal #Long #Able

The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are their worst.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #Mark #Worst

I came to live in a country I love; some people label me a defector. I have loved men and women in my life; I've been labeled the bisexual defector. Want to know another secret? I'm even ambidextrous. I don't like labels. Just call me Martina.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Country #Bisexual #Men

You can't live in the past, there's nothing you can do about it.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Past

The better I get, the more I realize how much better I can get.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Realizing

Tennis has given me soul.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Tennis #Soul #Given

Concentration is born on the practice court... you must mentally treat your practice sessions as matches, concentrating on every ball you hit.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Motivational #Sports #Practice

The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What's the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #Confused #Athlete

I know some of my self-worth comes from tennis, and it's hard to think of doing something else where you know you'll never be thebest. Tennis players are rare creatures: where else in the world can you know that you're the best? The definitiveness of it is the beauty of it, but it's not all there is to life and I'm ready to explore the alternatives.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Player #Thinking #Self Worth

On Chris Evert: Before I even met her, she stood for everything I admired in this country: poise, ability, sportsmanship, money, style.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #Country #Style

I would have drunk a lot of Pinot Grigio if I'd lost after leading 5-2 in the third.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Drunk #Drink #Lost

I'm not a one-sex person, and yet I hate the term bisexual. It sounds creepy to me, and I don't think I'm creepy. There are times when I feel downright romantic.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sex #Hate #Thinking

Lady' is an opinion; 'woman' is a fact.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Facts #Opinion

The goal for the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation is to give kids an opportunity to be involved in sports and hopefully learn some lessons along the way. We want to put them in a safe environment, help them if they need it and maybe they will get a scholarship to a school because of the skills that they learn. Sport is just a starting point.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #School #Kids

I just try to concentrate on concentrating.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Focus #Trying #Motivational Tennis

I am not looking for perfection. I look for the best in me.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Leadership #Sports #Perfection

Being blunt with your feelings is very American. In this big country, I can be as brash as New York, as hedonistic as Los Angeles, as sensuous as San Francisco, as brainy as Boston, as proper as Philadelphia, as brawny as Chicago, as warm as Palm Springs, as friendly as my adopted home town of Dallas, Fort Worth, and as peaceful as the inland waterway that rubs up against my former home in Virginia Beach.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Country #Beach #New York

All top players are the same strokewise, but mentally I can improve and that's where it's at for top players.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Player

Sure I know where the press room is - I just look for where they throw the dog meat.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Dog #Looks #Rooms

I'm an American. You can't go on where you were born. If you do then John McEnroe would be a German.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Tennis #Goes On #Would Be

If I feel strongly, I say it. I know I can do more good by being vocal than by staying quiet. I'd have a whole lot more money if I lied, but I wouldn't enjoy spending it.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Stay Strong #Quiet #Lied

Just put one foot in front of the other and don't worry about the length of the path. Once you get on that path, and the longer you stay on it, there eventually will come a time when you will not turn back.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Feet #Worry #Path

Once you start believing in yourself, anything is possible. Once you start believing in yourself, your dreams take shape. The more you believe, the more you achieve.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Dream #Believe #Shapes

Keeping a journal of what's going on in your life is a good way to help you distill what's important and what's not.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Important #Way #Helping

Changes made to please others are unrealistic, but more important, they're unfair to you.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Important #Unfair #Made

People in the States used to think that if girls were good at sports their sexuality would be affected.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Girl #Sports #Thinking

People in the States used to think that if girls were good at sports their sexuality would be affected. Being feminine meant being a cheerleader, not being an athlete. The image of women is changing now. You don't have to be pretty for people to come and see you play. At the same time, if you're a good athlete, it doesn't mean you're not a woman.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Girl #Sports #Athlete

What matters isn't how well you play when you're playing well. What matters is how well you play when you're playing badly.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #Play #What Matters

I think retirement beats the heck out of life after death, that's for sure.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Retirement #Thinking #Life After Death

You don't have to be pretty for people to come and see you play. At the same time, if you're a good athlete, it doesn't mean you're not a woman.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Athlete #Mean #Play

People who are rich want to be richer, but what's the difference? The toys get different, that's all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It's all relative.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Football #Team #Differences

I've been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Twilight #Careers #People

Security used to be an inconvenience sometimes, but now it's a necessity all the time.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sometimes #Used #Inconvenience

Sport doesn't know barriers, really. You are judged on your performance... how far you can jump, how fast you can run, how well you can hit a tennis ball.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #Running #Tennis

My worst memory is of my first dance lesson as a 14-year old in Prague. My mother put me in this silver and pink lame dress. My hair was all curled, and it was the first time I wore a garter belt. I felt so out of place!
-- Martina Navratilova

#Mother #Memories #Hair

Life is about challenges and how we face up to them and the attitude we take into every day life so hopefully we'll be able to motivate people to do more with their life.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Attitude #People #Challenges

The more people come out, the less it will be an issue.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Issues #People

I've been active in animal rights and all kinds of environmental stuff and children's charities over the years.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Children #Animal #Rights

Variety is what I would recommend: As variety is the spice of life in food, so it is in exercise. Change it up. But most of all, don't overdo it.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Exercise #Variety Is The Spice Of Life #Spices

I'm not involved in tennis but committed.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Tennis #Committed

I shouldn't say I'm looking forward to leading a normal life, because I don't know what normal is. This has been normal for me.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Normal #Looking Forward #Normal Life

Just by being out you're doing your part. It's like recycling. You're doing your part for the environment if you recycle; you're doing your part for the gay movement if you're out.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Gay #Movement #Recycling

No matter where I go, I always make friends at the bridge table
-- Martina Navratilova

#Bridges #Matter #Tables

Once you start believing in yourself, anything is possible.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Believe #Believe In Yourself #Anything Is Possible

I've been talking to Martina [Hingis] about playing for a couple of years. Maybe I can convince her to play some doubles.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Couple #Years #Play

The tennis ball doesn't know how old I am. The ball doesn't know if I'm a man or a woman or if I come from a communist country or not. Sport has always broken down these barriers.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Sports #Country #Men

In Czechoslovakia there is no such thing as freedom of the press. In the United States there is no such thing as freedom from the press.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Publicity #United States #Journalism

The longer I stay in the States, the more I understand how important it is to smile and seem like a nice guy. Like Ronald Reagan. Your image seems to count more than what you do.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Nice #Guy #Important

I have always had this outrage at being told what to, how to act, whom to love.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Outrage

I'd have a whole lot more money if I lied, but I wouldn't enjoy spending it.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Money #Lied #Spending

I hit some great shots in my lifetime; now I hit a decent shot and I get a standing ovation.
-- Martina Navratilova

#Ovation #Lifetime #Shots