I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.

They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.

It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.

I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.

What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.

In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated.

Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, its almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.

Never assume the other guy will never do something you would never do.

Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.

Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching.

When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.

[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.

Life is a journey filled with experiences but without the experiences, there will be no life.

He who lies down with dogs shall rise with fleas

A good goal is like a strenuous exercise-it makes you stretch.

Wit is a weapon. Jokes are a masculine way of inflicting superiority. But humor is the pursuit of a gentle grin, usually in solitude.

Marriage is what happens when one at least of the partners doesn't want the other to get away.

A lot of times, you just don't get the jobs you want to get.

I wear black for those who never read or listen to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness, through love and charity.

You don't want to take over the universe. You wouldn't know what to do with it beyond shout at it.

Patience, piety, and salutary knowledge spring up and ripen under the harrow of affliction; before there is wine or oil, the grape must be trodden and the oil pressed.