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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.