Jackie Robinson Quotes

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Jackie Robinson

Profession : Baseball Player

Birth : January 31, 1919

I felt unhappy and trapped. If I left baseball, where could I go, what could I do to earn enough money to help my mother and to marry Rachel? The solution to my problem was only days away in the hands of a tough, shrewd, courageous man called Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

This ain't fun. But you watch me, I'll get it done.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

Jackie Robinson

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality - we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

Jackie Robinson

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

Jackie Robinson

If I had been white with the things I did, they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson