Branch Rickey Quotes in 42 (2013)

Branch Rickey: You think God likes baseball, Herb?

Herb Pennock: What - ? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Branch Rickey: It means someday you're gonna meet God, and when he inquires as to why you didn't take the field against Robinson in Philadelphia, and you answer that it's because he was a Negro, it may not be a sufficient reply!

Jackie Robinson: You want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight back?

Branch Rickey: No. No. I want a player who's got the guts not to fight back. People aren't gonna like this. They're gonna do anything to get you to react. Echo a curse with a curse and, uh, they'll hear only yours. Follow a blow with a blow and they'll say, "The Negro lost his temper." That "The Negro does not belong." Your enemy will be out in force... and you cannot meet him on his own low ground. We win with hitting, running, fielding. Only that. We win if the world is convinced of two things: That you are a fine gentleman and a great baseball player. Like our Savior... you gotta have the guts... to turn the other cheek. Can you do it?

Jackie Robinson: You give me a uniform... you give me a, heh, number on my back... and I'll give you the guts.

Branch Rickey: [Referring to Jackie Robinson] He's a Methodist, I'm a Methodist... And God's a Methodist; We can't go wrong.

Burt Shotton: When I took the Cleveland uniform off two years ago I promised the missus I'd never put on another uniform again. So the roses are beautiful and, uh, I sleep better too.

Branch Rickey: Roses and sleep are two wonderful things, Burt. But sleep you can get when you're in your casket, and flowers look great on top of it. But, uh, you don't look like a dead man to me, Burt.

Branch Rickey: We had a victory of fascism in Germany. It's time, time we had a victory over racism at home.

Branch Rickey: It's another opening day, Harold. All future, no past.

Harold Parrott: It's a blank page, sir.

[from trailer]

Branch Rickey: Jackie Robinson. A black man in white baseball.