Jackie Robinson Quotes

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Jackie Robinson

Profession : Baseball Player

Birth : January 31, 1919

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.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

The old Dodgers were something special, but of my teammates overall, there was nobody like Pee Wee Reese for me.

Jackie Robinson

I had no future with the Dodgers, because I was too closely identified with Branch Rickey. After the club was taken over by Walter O'Malley, you couldn't even mention Mr. Rickey's name in front of him. I considered Mr. Rickey the greatest human being I had ever known.

Jackie Robinson

A new breed of Republicans has taken over the GOP. It is a new breed which is seeking to sell to Americans a doctrine which is as old as mankind - the doctrine of racial division, the doctrine of racial prejudice, the doctrine of white supremacy.

Jackie Robinson

During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake. One of them was the National Republican Convention in San Francisco, which produced the greatest disaster the Republican Party has ever known - Nominee Barry Goldwater.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions.

Jackie Robinson

When I am playing baseball, I give it all that I have on the ball field. When the ball game is over, I certainly don't take it home. My little girl who is sitting out there wouldn't know the difference between a third strike and a foul ball. We don't talk about baseball at home.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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.

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.

Jackie Robinson

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

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson

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.

Jackie Robinson