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

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

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.

Life is not a spectator sport.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

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

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 want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my own.

When a car’s ahead of you, as long as you can see it, you get a tow, just like the draft in NASCAR.

You’ll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

A lifetime contract for a coach means if you’re ahead in the third quarter and moving the ball, they can’t fire you.

The great person is ahead of their time, the smart make something out of it, and the blockhead, sets themselves against it.

Every time there has been an effort by the Haitian people to overcome the misery and poverty that comes from 200 years of bitter attacks, really bitter, the U.S. steps in and blocks it.

A simple life, a good life. And think about moving the whole human race ahead a step, or a few steps.

I enjoy competition. I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it.