All Quotes

"In times when nothing stood but worsened, or grew strange, there was one constant good: she did not change."

"So I went to the top lady. And I was sobbing and I said, ‘What do I do? I'm coming to you. What do I do?’... And she said, ‘I don't know what you should do. Charles is hopeless.’ And that was it. That was help! So I didn't go back to her again for help because I don't go back again if I don't get it the first time, right."

"Wouldn't let that family near me with a sharp stick, let alone a sword"

"The British monarchy doesn't depend entirely on glamour, as the long, long reign of Queen Elizabeth II continues to demonstrate. Her unflinching dutifulness and reliability have conferred something beyond charm upon the institution, associating it with stoicism and a certain integrity. Republicanism is infinitely more widespread than it was when she was first crowned, but it's very rare indeed to hear the Sovereign Lady herself being criticized, and even most anti-royalists hasten to express themselves admiringly where she is concerned. I am not sure how deserved this immunity really is. The queen took two major decisions quite early in her reign, neither of which was forced upon her. She refused to allow her younger sister Margaret to marry the man she loved and had chosen, and she let her authoritarian husband have charge of the education of her eldest son. The first decision was taken to appease the most conservative leaders of the Church of England (a church of which she is, absurdly, the head), who could not approve the marriage of Margaret to a divorced man. The second was taken for reasons less clear."

"We, her people of Gibraltar, are perhaps the only ones in her reign who have chosen to remain British on two occasions... We’ve chosen her twice... So we can proudly say that she is our Queen by invitation and not imposition."

"While British republicanism has long been a minority pursuit... it is undeniable that the cause enters the third decade of the 21st century in a considerably worse condition than it entered the third decade of the 20th... That is a testament to the skill of the woman who might well be the United Kingdom’s most successful politician of the past century: Queen Elizabeth II. The Crown’s popularity is the fruit of her strategy and the decisions she has taken over the nearly seven decades of her reign."

"I had already met her (Queen Elizabeth) formally but she was very different this time, much more open. She went out of her way to make me feel comfortable and kept on cracking jokes. I laughed so much that day. At the same time she was very gracious. I hope that the painting reflects these qualities."

"有個貴族朋友在硬幣背後，青春不變名字叫做皇后；每次買賣隨我到處去奔走，面上沒有表情卻匯聚成就"

"Nothing in this book is true. "Live by the foma* that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." — The Books of Bokonon 1:5 *Harmless untruths"

"We Bokononists believe that humanity is organized into teams, teams that do God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing. Such a team is called a karass by Bokonon ... "If you find your life tangled up with somebody else's life for no very logical reasons," writes Bokonon, "that person may be a member of your karass." At another point in The Books of Bokonon he tells us, "Man created the checkerboard; God created the karass." By that he means that a karass ignores national, institutional, occupational, familial, and class boundaries. It is as free form as an amoeba."

"All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies."

"Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either. So be it."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand before you now because I never stopped dawdling like an eight-year-old on a spring morning on his way to school. Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn. I am a very happy man. Thank you."

"Sure I'll miss it. But I'm not enough of a lunkhead to think I could go on forever. Tunney, Dempsey and Bob Jones missed the action of their games for a while, but not for long. I guess the tough part will be when the bunch blow in and I'll be up there in the stands looking on. But on the other hand I won't be dragging those aching dogs and bum legs over those hard diamonds. I can do what I want now. I'll stay and loaf here until April and then head North again. But I'll take the trip in one jump—not twenty."

"My biggest home run thrill? The day I called that one on Root in the Yankee-Cub series. The whole crowd was riding me. I was riding 'em back with even rougher language. The Chicago bench was yelling "Onya—onya—onya—you big yellow bum." Root had thrown me two bad balls I didn't like. I protested both, then I pointed to the flag police in center field. I knew Root would feed me another just like the first two, so I moved up about eight inches closer and gave it the works. They tell me when they found that ball it was lopsided, shaped like an egg. I just got to thinking later what a terrible heel I'd have been that day if Root had struck me out, but I never thought of that till later. It's a good thing I didn't. What a mug I'd have been."

"Nothing to it. Those Yankees were the best team. Figure it out. After we got going we won twelve straight World Series games—twelve in a row. It was murder. The Red Sox had the greatest outfield with Lewis, Speaker and Hooper. But the Yankees had the greatest punch baseball ever knew. We never even worried five or six runs behind. Ruth—Gehrig—Lazerri—Combs—Dickey—wham, wham, and wham—no matter who was pitching."

"In pitching, control is the main thing—one thing you've got to have. Few pitchers have it. In batting, it is timing—waiting on the ball, not hurrying the swing—just as it is in golf. Most hitters in baseball swing too quickly. They can't wait on the pitch. Old Joe Jackson could wait. So could Speaker and Cobb"

"One more point: A good player never stops until he's actually out, running as hard for first base on the almost-certain-to-be-caught fly or grounder as he would if he were sprinting the 100-yard dash. If Henry Ford hadn't kept going in the early days despite ridicule, we would never have seen the Ford car. It's been much the same with almost every great man you could name. He kept plugging when everybody said his chances of making first base were nil. You just can’t beat the person who never gives up."

"Nobody but a blankety-blank fool would-a done what I did that day. When I think what-a idiot I'd a been if I'd struck out and I could-a, too, just as well as not because I was mad and I'd made up my mind to swing at the next pitch if I could reach it with a bat. Boy, when I think of the good breaks in my life ... that was one of them. [...] But right now I want to settle all arguments: I din't exactly point to any spot, like the flagpole. Anyway, I didn't mean to. I just sorta waved at the whole fence, but that was foolish enough. All I wanted to do was give that thing a ride ... outta the park ... anywhere."

"Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games"

"I am a very bad scientist. I will do anything to make a human being feel better, even if it's unscientific."

"They say I used to scare pitchers just by strolling to the plate but those guys always had a remedy for me. Whenever they were afraid I'd knock one out of the park, they'd walk me and their worries would be over. But once Cobb got on base then their worries really began. He would upset not only the pitcher or catcher, but the infield as well by going from first to third on a sacrifice bunt, scoring from second on an infield out, taking two bases on an outfield fly and making delayed steals. Fans still talk about the home run I hit in the 1932 World Series off Charley Root of the Cubs after I pointed to the rightfield stands. Well, I once remember Cobb beating out four bunts down the third base line in one game against Billy Bradley, a wonderful third baseman for Cleveland. That was after Cobb warned Bradley he would bunt to him every time he got up. Another time Cobb warned Lou Criger, a great catcher with Boston, that he would steal second, third and home on him first chance he got. Well, the first time up Cobb walked and on three pitches stole second, third and home against the dumbfounded Criger."

"They did that to me in the American League one year. I coulda hit .600 that year slicing singles to left. [Interviewer asks why he didn't do so.] That's not what the fans came out to see."

"Going to tell you something, Hank. Hand me that bat. Now I'm going to show you the whole secret of how I hit those home runs. Only fellow I ever told it to was Lou Gehrig, when poor Lou first came up to the Yanks and Miller Huggins was trying to make a left-field hitter out of him. Look. See how this grip makes your wrist break at the right moment? Throws the whole weight of the bat into the ball. With this grip, you've just got to follow through. I kept it a secret a long time."

"I'm glad you finally signed up, Hank. A man's got to keep playing, if he's fit. Keep looking out for yourself. Keep your wind. That's everything. You'll like the National League, Hank. Especially the ballparks. I got a bum break when I went over there, but that was just accidental. You'll be okay. They'll curve-ball you a lot, and you'll find they think a one-run lead is something nice to sit back and rest on. But otherwise it's the same baseball we played. Don't give up until every base is uphill. I played just a little too long. About a week or so. I should have quit that day in Pittsburgh—I was with the Braves, you know—when I got three home runs and was gypped out of a fourth one by one of the Waners. That should have been curtains. But I had promised old man Fuchs that I'd hang around for his Memorial Day crowd. Too bad."

"I was a bad kid. I say this without pride but with a feeling that it is better to say it. I live with one great hope: to help kids who now stand where I stood as a boy. If what I have to say here helps even one of them avoid some of my own mistakes, or take heart from such triumphs as I have had, this book will serve its purpose."

"I think my mother hated me."

"It was at St. Mary’s that I met and learned to love the greatest man I’ve ever known. His name was Brother Matthias. He was the father I needed. He taught me to read and write — and he taught me the difference between right and wrong."

"I didn't mean to hit the umpire with the dirt, but I did mean to hit that bastard in the stands."

"We had a lot of fun with Casey all through the Series. There never was anything abusive about him. We rode him just to hear his clownish comebacks. I know I kidded him plenty. And when he won the 1 to 0 game, he ran around the bases with his thumb to his nose and his hand pointed to the Yankee bench. I think it was meant for me in particular as he tried to show me he, too, knew how to hit home runs. Ruppert didn't like it and later said it was undignified. But we didn't mind Casey having his fun."

"Leo never was much of a hitter. I tried to help him once. I suggested that he become a switch-hitter and that if he did, his average would jump up to .400. "Two hundred right-handed and two hundred left," I said."

"I guess I should have written two books of my life, one for the adults and another for the kids."

"Yes, he's a prick, but he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit!"

"A ballplayer should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill."

"If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery. I have the same violent temper my father and older brother had. Both died of injuries from street fights in Baltimore, fights begun by flare-ups of their tempers."

"I only have one superstition: I make sure to touch all the bases when I hit a home run."

"Keed, I'll give you a little bit of advice. Don't believe anything they write about you, good or bad. Two, get the dough while the getting is good, but don't break your heart trying to get it. And don't pick up too many checks!"

"If I'd just tried for them dinky singles I could've batted around six hundred!"

"I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball. In boxing, your fist usually stops when you hit a man, but its possible to hit so hard that your fist doesn't stop. I try to follow through in the same way. The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can."

"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."

"I'll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They're too much fun."

"I copied Jackson's style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He's the guy who made me a hitter."

"He was going on my show. I introduce him and this big, garrulous guy – he can’t say a word. Mute. I read his script on air and now I’m Ruth as Babe tries to compose himself, smoking and leaning against the wall. You know something? We pull it off. I sign off and Babe hasn’t made a sound."

"He had real good stuff. I mean real good. His fast ball took off and his curve was quick. And he could get the ball over. He was always around the plate. It was funny, though. He had a cute trick of sticking out his tongue on a curve ball. But even though you knew it was coming, you had trouble hitting it. I caught him once in California in an exhibition game one fall. He still had something left. I remember we beat the other team managed by Ty Cobb, 8-7, and Ty sure hated to lose."

"Ruth can hit the ball farther than anyone I ever saw. There has never been anyone like him and I don't think there ever will be. I hope he lives to hit one-hundred homers in a season. I wish him all the luck in the world. He has everybody else hopelessly outclassed, including myself."

"You know how Ruth hits those home runs around the circuit, and I doubt if his total would be reduced by as many as three or four. Ruth hits them into the street in Cleveland, where there is a 45-foot screen in right field. He hits them out of the park in Detroit, St. Louis and Philadelphia. Screens would not bother him but would cut down the number of home-run hitters. At present, players who have no right to be swinging for homers are using the Ruth type of hitting. I think it's time to step in and do something to cut down the mania. The public wants the lively ball, with the speed it has brought into baseball, but it doesn't want a flock of cheap home runs. And it would appreciate a return of some of the older sort of hitting. By all means let us not do anything to really hamper a man like Ruth."

"Ten years to the day after he signed his first Yankee contract, calling for $10,000, Babe Ruth today nonchalantly rejected an offer of $75,000, the salary paid the president of the United States.✱"

"Rooming with him. Why, I room with the big monkey's baggage."

"He roomed with Babe Ruth for a couple of years-according to the records. “But I never saw much of him," he said later. “I roomed with a suitcase. About the only time I saw him was when we were on train trips. Then we played cards and drank beer for hour upon hour.""

"I roomed with a suitcase. About the only time I saw him was at the ballpark or on a train. He couldn't come through a hotel lobby without being mobbed by fans. If he ate at the hotel, diners pestered him for autographs and his food got cold. I got to know him best on sleeper jumps. He loved to play poker. First thing he'd do on boarding the train would be to peel off his jacket and shirt and holler for a deck of cards."