Quotes About Adversity

I'm interested in exploring how an individual maintains a sense of power in a world that tends to make individuals feel powerless.

I guess I'm the sort who, if I find something comfortable, tends to push against it.

When you're losing that tends to kind of build the character of everybody together.

Well, there are a lot of things outside our control - outside my control. And this is true with anybody's life: You try to keep the train on a certain track, and then there are a lot of moving parts that you can't control. And that tends to make you nervous.

My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Women's Singles tennis champion in college.

You may not be playing your best tennis or having your best match; sometimes it's just not your day. The important thing is to believe in yourself, which starts with being confident in your abilities.

I did realise more than ever, after the stabbing, that tennis is a business - a tough business.

After almost 30 years of playing this sport, I've learned something. I've learned that, no matter what happens, or happened... or where you are, or where you've been... at the end of the day: tennis is tennis. It's always, always tennis. And there's nothing better.

I've been kicked in the teeth more times in tennis than the law ought to allow.

If you lose three or four in a row, people start talking about retirement. They are not used to this sport like they are used to tennis. If you take a look at how many times Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer lost, it's all part of the game. Soccer is no different: teams go through bad times and then rise again.

It wasn't my tennis that made me lose, it was a lot of different things going on, high drama, high emotion.

I just feel like it would be so against my personality to have this struggle in tennis and just give up. I know it's not me, not who I am, and that would probably affect other parts of my life.

For the first couple of years I played really bad tennis. It was so bad that they booed me off the court.

I just try to stay positive and focused on the tennis, not let anything get to me, like crazy questions. But I'm tough, let me tell you, tough as nails.

I love tennis. I've played it my whole life. Loved it since the age of three. I had an injury, so from the age of 13 to 24 I didn't play much. Then when I moved out to L.A., there were so many tennis courts that I rekindled the love.

We didn't have football boots, and we used a broken tennis ball instead of a football. I didn't use a proper ball until I was 11.

Being a 6-foot-tall tennis player is not great for a girl's social life.

I know I'm not the best tennis player there's ever been, but calling me a loser is just ignorance.

These close losses, when they stack up, two, three, four, five in a row, they change the tenor of a season.

I used to be tense or nervous before heats. But I've learned to get rid of the negative stuff and just stay relaxed and positive - and it seems to be working for me.

If you think negatively, it's hard to get out of tense moments.

Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn't care all that much if you live or die.

I intend to get four people in a tent that I can attest is absolutely smaller than the Dragon spacecraft, on a mountain when it's snowing out, and introduce everybody to some really stressful situations. We are all going to know each other incredibly well long before we ever strap into Dragon.

I didn't win Class President in tenth grade. I was too chubby to win a role in the school play 'Oklahoma!' and I didn't make it into a singing and dancing group in high school for the same reason - too fat.