Top 50 Jim Brown Quotes

If I couldn’t have discipline, if I sit up eatin’ fried chicken in bed at night, I’d just as soon be dead. I take care of myself.

I run a program called Amer-I-Can. We’ve taught in prisons, schools, juvenile facilities and we teach in the community. We have the greatest record from the standpoint of dealing with grade point averages, disciplinary action and attendance in schools.

NASCAR stepped up their safety concepts, and I think the drivers feel NASCAR is doing everything that can be done. So we are a little behind NASCAR in that respect. Someone in NASCAR realized there were certain things that could be done to make it safer. The same thing has to happen in football.

The funny thing about cinema is, usually when they do a story that has African Americans in it, there always has to be a white guy who’s the savior.

I listened to my kids talk about me as a parent, and I learned about things they wished I’d done and said. And I wished that I had done more of those things.

‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X.’ I’ve used it to demonstrate racial attitudes to people who I thought needed a better understanding of all human beings. Malcolm was not a racist. He was not looking for revenge. He realized that kindness and goodness did not come from any one kind of person.

I would love to have a role with the Browns. I think that’s what every ex-player would like to do most of all: to be a contributor to the success of an organization that he was a player that brought a certain amount of success.

Baltimore has proven themselves on the football field. We can’t take that away.

The three greatest people in my life were white, OK. My high school coach, my high school superintendent and my mentor in Manhasset, Long Island.

The essence of Ferguson is the spirit of the people, and I’m so happy to see the spirit because I haven’t seen it like that since the Civil Rights Movement.

I don’t teach kids to be No. 1. Organizations and people that tell you you have to be No. 1; that’s not it. You don’t have to be No. 1. What I teach is to be as good as you can be. Use what you have and be as good as you can be. That’s all you can do, anyway.

We have to go back to the memories of 9-11. If that memory doesn’t do anything to you as an American, then you’re not really that sensitive a human being.

Money has changed today’s black athletes. Those who have the ability as African men to bring a change in a community that so desperately needs it are concentrating only on their own careers, some charities and how much money they can make.

Ben Schwartzwalder was a decent guy, but he was from another era. He was like a Marine, with a real army attitude. He thought there was only one way to play football, and that was the rough way.

I would never try to motivate anyone to follow me. I would motivate him to follow certain principles.

I think the National Football League needs a new union. The heavyweights of this union are not heavyweights enough.

Capitalistic society teaches kids to be No. 1, but true self-esteem doesn’t come from money. It doesn’t come from winning the Super Bowl.

My biggest problem was to get the coaches to understand that I was a runner, and I wanted to prepare myself based upon the calisthenics I did and get myself ready. For example, I used my forearm when I ran the ball, so I didn’t want to do pushups because I wanted my forearms to heal.

I gave away most of my trophies, put away the plaques.

I learned a long time ago that advice is a quick trip to nowhere. It’s the commitment that only you can make in yourself, the responsibility to assume control of yourself.

The power is between your ears.The power is in your heart.

If you want experiences to make you a better person, then you play two or three sports.

I could never understand why they did that to Barry Sanders in Detroit. I know that’s one of the reasons why he retired, because they took him out on third down and let someone else catch the ball. I thought they must be out of their mind because Barry is such a threat.

I’m a fan of NASCAR, in a certain kind of way.

Adrian Peterson isn’t running by committee.

When you think of the sacrifices our firefighters make, think about the service of soldiers in foreign lands and listen to their lives, you have to be careful that whatever you do, don’t cast a shadow on what these great people do.

I look for good people and people that will be like-minded and help me try to do good for other human beings.

I’m a very sensitive person. I do like to be respected. I’m very loyal. I like it to be a two-way street.

I loved the game. We played because we loved it.

A liberal will cut off your leg so he can hand you a crutch.

The NFL pension is the worst in the world of business. It’s an embarrassment.

Young black men in this country have to understand that they have a responsibility. They cannot be the enemy in their own neighborhoods and usurp the effort of good people that are trying to make things work.

Twenty-seven years incarcerated, his jailer became his best friend. So if you need an example on how we should act and how we should be, then Nelson Mandela is the man to follow.

America says we are a great democratic society and other people should follow our example. Well, I say we benefited from slavery, and as a nation, we never faced that because the people in power chose not to.

It doesn’t take science to know that when you have head-to-head collisions, there’s going to be some effect.

The Jewish culture has a wonderful thing about education. It has a great thing about family; it has a great thing about unity, hard work, dedication. I would like to say the African-American community should emulate that.

I am forever a Cleveland Brown.

Nobody is going to tell me Marshawn Lynch can’t run. He’s strong as an ox.

I’m an American citizen. I pay my taxes. I want my equal rights. But this is my country, and consequently, I don’t want to open up for ISIS or for anybody that will take away what we’ve already gained.

Boxing is a great example of it, but in football, sometimes you’re taking greater hits than boxers. When you have one man going full speed against another man, and those heads are colliding, it’s just the fact of science you’re going to have results.

When you have a problem, rules don’t solve your problem. It’s caring and education.

When I think of greatness, I think of guys like Earl Campbell and Gale Sayers and Walter Payton, and these individuals who, it’s unanimous they’re going to make a difference – when they’re coming out of college, there’s no doubt.

I was an in-between size. I wasn’t tall enough to be a real forward, and I probably didn’t handle the ball well enough to be a point guard.

People think that coaches are always right, but it’s difficult to teach a runner how to run, because every runner is different. You have to have an understanding of how to assist what that runner has, so they know how to assist what you have without taking away your special ability, because you’re not like anybody else.

I’m not interested in trying to work on people’s perceptions. I am who I am, and if you don’t take the time to learn about that, then your perception is going to be your problem.

You can do a hell of a film if you can understand what it is to be a man in America.

I want the violence among young people in this country to stop – particularly gang violence.

One of the most fantastic experiences I ever had was as a decathlete. I finished fifth in the nation my senior year of high school. I had no training or nothing.

You cannot get me to be disloyal to a friend. You just can’t do it. Loyalty is a part of what I live by. I didn’t say I was going to be loyal to my friend because he was right. I’m going to be loyal to my friend because he’s my friend.

I like tight bodies and pretty faces. You bring in Methuselah, if she’s got a tight body and a pretty face, that’s all right, too.