Quotes from Jackie Robinson

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.

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

The colonel replied that he didn't care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade.

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.

In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.

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.

How you played in yesterday's game is all that counts.

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.

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.

I know that I am a black man in a white world. . . I know that I never had it made.

I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.

A life isn't significant except for its impact on others' lives.

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.

I had practiced with the team, and the first scheduled game was with the University of Missouri. They made it quite clear to the Army that they would not play a team with a black player on it. Instead of telling me the truth, the Army gave me leave to go home.

In my opinion, baseball is as big a business as anything there is. It has to be a business, the way it is conducted.

There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.

Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.

I guess you'd call me an independent, since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics. I always decide my vote by taking as careful a look as I can at the actual candidates and issues themselves, no matter what the party label.

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'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.