Jackie Robinson Quotes

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

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

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 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.

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.

I am not concerned with being liked or disliked. I am concerned with being respected

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 do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us (no matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past: to discover the truth of today; and perhaps the greatness of tomorrow.

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

Relationships may change throughout the gift of time, memories stay the same forever in my mind.

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

Negroes aren't seeking anything which is not good for the nation as well as ourselves. In order for America to be 100 percent strong -- economically, defensively and morally -- we cannot afford the waste of having second- and third-class citizens.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

I don’t think it matters what I believe, only what I do.

Life is not a spectator sport.

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.

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

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.

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.

I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

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.

You're going to be a great player, kid.

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 ought to break this trophy into 32 pieces

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

I don't like needing anyone for anything.

Are you looking for a Negro who won't fight back?

It's not easy to be a martyr in the field of race relations.

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'm not goin' anywhere, I'm right here!