Motivational Quotes

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.

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.

The old Dodgers were something special,

but of my teammates overall,

there was nobody like Pee Wee Reese for me.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If I had been white with the things I did,

they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball.

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.

In all my years of baseball,

I have always expected to be traded.

I never liked the idea.

In my opinion,

baseball is as big a business as anything there is.

It has to be a business,

the way it is conducted.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The right of every American to first

class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

This ain't fun.

But you watch me,

I'll get it done.

Baseball is like a poker game.

Nobody wants to quit when he's losing;

nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.