April 15th is a special day for baseball fans. On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American player in the modern era of Major League Baseball. Robinson endured countless racist taunts and obstacles throughout his career, yet he always maintained a positive attitude and never gave up. In honor of Jackie Robinson Day, we have compiled 57 of his most inspiring quotes. These quotes will not only motivate you to succeed in baseball, but also in life!
About Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) was an American baseball player who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Born in Cairo, Georgia, Robinson grew up in Pasadena, California, and attended UCLA, where he was a four-sport athlete. After serving in World War II, Robinson began his professional baseball career with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. In 1947, he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American player to play in the MLB since the 19th century. Robinson faced significant discrimination and racism during his first season, but he persevered and went on to have a successful career, winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and helping the Dodgers win the National League pennant in 1955. He was also a six-time All-Star and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Off the field, Robinson was a civil rights activist, and his signing with the Dodgers is seen as a major milestone in the civil rights movement.
Jackie Robinson Quotes
- “Above anything else, I hate to lose.” – Jackie Robinson
- “I don’t like needing anyone for anything.” – Jackie Robinson
- “Jim Crow” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “the boys.” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.” – Jackie Robinson
- “I don’t let my mouth say nothin’ my head can’t stand” – Jackie Robinson
- “The Democrats” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.” – Jackie Robinson
- “on Staten Island. The” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.” – Jackie Robinson
- “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” – Jackie Robinson
- “There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.” – Jackie Robinson
- “XIX The Influence of Martin Luther King, Jr.” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.” – Jackie Robinson
- “In all my years of baseball, I have always expected to be traded. I never liked the idea.” – Jackie Robinson
- “The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.” – Jackie Robinson
- “Pop flies, in a sense, are just a diversion for a second baseman. Grounders are his stock trade.” – 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
- “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” – Jackie Robinson
- “Yell. Heckle. Do anything you want. We came here to play baseball.” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “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
- “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
- “It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.” – Jackie Robinson
- “Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.” – 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
- “United States—and unfairly, I feel—the greatest purveyor of violence on earth.” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “It isn’t a perfect America and it isn’t run right, but it still belongs to us. As” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “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
- “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
- “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 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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “became a swellhead, a wise guy, an “uppity” nigger. When a white player did it, he had spirit. When a black player did it, he was “ungrateful,” an upstart, a” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “I’m grateful for all the breaks and honors and opportunities I’ve had, but I always believe I won’t have it made until the humblest black kid in the most remote backwoods of America has it made.” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “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.” – 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
- “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.” – 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 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
- “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 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 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
- “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
- “There was a popular saying once that in the North the white man didn’t care how close the black man came if he didn’t climb too high, and in the South the white man didn’t care how high the black man climbed if he didn’t come too close.” – Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography
- “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
- “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 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
- “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
- “There I was, the black grandson of a slave, the son of a black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the national anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. 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 Never Had It Made
Wrapping Up
Jackie Robinson’s remarkable life and career was a testament to his courage, strength, and determination. He has inspired generations of people with his story and will continue to do so for years to come. His legacy as a pioneer in the civil rights movement is one that should never be forgotten. From his time in the Army during World War II to his groundbreaking first season in major league baseball, Jackie Robinson’s story will remain an inspiration and a reminder of the importance of standing up for what is right. We can all learn from him and be inspired by his courage and tenacity. Thank you, Jackie Robinson, for your contributions to our society. Your legacy will live on forever.
