I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.

Trying to sneak a fastball by Ted Williams was like trying to sneak a sunbeam by a rooster in the morning.

Nowadays, they have more trouble packing hair dryers than baseball equipment.

I was only a gun captain on the battleship Alabama for 34 months. People have called me a hero for that, but I'll tell you this - heroes don't come home. Survivors come home.

I try to be a good human being and keep up with what's going on in the world by reading and staying in touch with the current events.

If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.

I needed to join the Navy. If you ask the people in Europe who won World War II, they don't say the Allies, they say the United States won the war and saved the world.

Life comes down to honesty and doing what's right. That's what's most important.

Cooperstown is the greatest place on Earth.

You can talk about teamwork on a baseball team, but I'll tell you, it takes teamwork when you have 2,900 men stationed on the U.S.S. Alabama in the South Pacific.

The soldiers that didn't come back were the heroes. It's a roll of the dice. If a bullet has your name on it, you're a hero. If you hear a bullet go by, you're a survivor.

A true poet is one who can appreciate the disciplines and structures of any and all styles of poetry.

We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love.

Castro has been a teacher for me. A master. Not on ideology but on strategy.

Ladies, like variegated tulips, show 'Tis to their changes half their charms we owe.

I love being a beginner. It can be a terrible feeling because you're ashamed of everything you do, but it's so exciting at the same time.

If you cause your ship to stop and place the head of a long tube in the water and place the outer extremity to your ear, you will hear ships at a great distance from you.

I hit a lot of bad shots, but you just need to laugh about them, be able to have a smile on your face, and just keep moving.

Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.

The blame for the maddening complications of the federal tax system goes to the people with the most money

You have to eat good! I eat gorgeous food. I eat sushi, I eat meat, I eat steaks. I eat more than you, I'm sure.