Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Life is not a spectator sport.
Above anything else, I hate to lose.
You're going to be a great player, kid.
I'm not goin' anywhere, I'm right here!
I don't like needing anyone for anything.
I ought to break this trophy into 32 pieces
Are you looking for a Negro who won't fight back?
This ain't fun. But you watch me, I'll get it done.
How you played in yesterday's game is all that counts.
I don’t think it matters what I believe, only what I do.
It's not easy to be a martyr in the field of race relations.
A life isn't significant except for its impact on others' lives.
I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.
I know that I am a black man in a white world. . . I know that I never had it made.
I am not concerned with being liked or disliked. I am concerned with being respected
In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.
The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.
The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.
Relationships may change throughout the gift of time, memories stay the same forever in my mind.
Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade.
If I had been white with the things I did, they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball.
I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.
The old Dodgers were something special, but of my teammates overall, there was nobody like Pee Wee Reese for me.
Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.
It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.
In my opinion, baseball is as big a business as anything there is. It has to be a business, the way it is conducted.
Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.
After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job.
The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.
I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.
If I had to choose between baseball’s Hall of Fame and first class citizenship for all of my people. I would say first-class citizenship.
I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.
Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.
I think if we go back and check our record, the Negro has proven beyond a doubt that we have been more than patient in seeking our rights as American citizens.
The black press, some liberal sportswriters, and even a few politicians were banging away at those Jim Crow barriers in baseball. I never expected the walls to come tumbling down in my lifetime.
When I look back at what I had to go through in black baseball, I can only marvel at the many black players who stuck it out for years in the Jim Crow leagues because they had nowhere else to go.
When he (Richard Nixon) took the oath of office, he pledged to be the president for 100% of the people, and I challenge the president to prove that he is being the president for 100% of the people.
At the beginning of the World Series of 1947, I experienced a completely new emotion when the National Anthem was played. This time, I thought, it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else.
The many of us who attain what we may and forget those who help us along the line we've got to remember that there are so many others to pull along the way. The farther they go, the further we all go.
My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people's kids than I did my own.
Blacks have had to learn to protect themselves by being cynical but not cynical enough to slam the door on potential opportunities. We go through life walking a tightrope to prevent too much disillusionment.
It kills me to lose. If I'm a troublemaker, and I don't think that my temper makes me one, then it's because I can't stand losing. That's the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.
I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.
Baseball, like some other sports, poses as a sacred institution dedicated to the public good, but it is actually a big, selfish business with a ruthlessness that many big businesses would never think of displaying.
I had to fight hard against loneliness, abuse, and the knowledge that any mistakes I made would be magnified because I was the only black man out there... I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.
Next time I go to a movie and see a picture of a little ordinary girl become a great star… I’ll believe it. And whenever I hear my wife read fairy tales to my little boy, I’ll listen. I know now that dreams do come true.
I don't think that I or any other Negro, as an American citizen, should have to ask for anything that is rightfully his. We are demanding that we just be given the things that are rightfully ours and that we're not looking for anything else.