Branch Rickey Quotes


"Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Devil, Leisure)

"Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Trade)

"Thou shalt not steal. I mean defensively. On offense, indeed thou shall steal and thou must."
- Branch Rickey
"Thinking about the devil is worse than seeing the devil."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Devil, Thinking)

"The man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Man)

"The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: History, Race)

"Problems are the price you pay for progress."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Progress, Problems)

"Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Baseball, First, Rules, Spirit)

"Never surrender opportunity for security."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Opportunity, Security, Surrender)

"Luck is the residue of design."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Design, Luck)

"All I had was natural ability."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Ability)

"I find fault with my children because I like them and I want them to go places - uprightness and strength and courage and civil respect and anything that affects the probabilities of failure on the part of those that are closest to me, that concerns me - I find fault."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Courage, Failure, Strength, Children, Fault, Respect, Want)

"A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Chance, Will)

"It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Honor)

"Baseball is a game of inches."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Baseball)

"Baseball people, and that includes myself, are slow to change and accept new ideas. I remember that it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Change, People, Ideas, Baseball, Numbers, Years)

"Cobb lived off the field as though he wished to live forever. He lived on the field as though it was his last day."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Day)

"Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Sports, Truth, Baseball, Prejudice)

"I don't care if I was a ditch-digger at a dollar a day, I'd want to do my job better than the fellow next to me. I'd want to be the best at whatever I do."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Care, Day, Job, Want)

"If things don't come easy, there is no premium on effort. There should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Effort, Joy, Pursuit, Zest)

"A full mind is an empty bat."
- Branch Rickey
(Related: Mind)