Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines

Spoken by Satchel Paige 1906–1982 · Negro leagues and Major League pitcher
Verified In copyright

Quote Investigator traced the line to a column by Associated Press writer Hal Boyle, published 2 October 1959, which quotes Paige directly. QI’s conclusion is unambiguous: Paige should receive credit for the statement.

Last verified 26 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines” Satchel Paige (1906–1982), quoted by Hal Boyle, Associated Press, 2 October 1959. — quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The Associated Press and the estate of Leroy “Satchel” Paige). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Satchel Paige — Negro leagues and Major League pitcher. Theme: "Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

A 1959 Associated Press column

Spoken by
Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige
Reported by
Hal Boyle, Associated Press
Earliest citation
2 October 1959, Moberly Monitor-Index (Missouri)
Traced by
Quote Investigator (2019)

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

The famous sentence is the last of four. Quote Investigator reproduces the passage from Hal Boyle’s 1959 column; the run-up is what gives the closing line its shrug.

Quote Investigator: Don’t Pray When It Rains

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator’s investigation ↗ reproduces the passage from a 1959 Hal Boyle column for the Associated Press and concludes that “Satchel Paige should receive credit for the statement in the 1959 citation.”
  • QI’s earliest citation is dated 2 October 1959 in the Moberly Monitor-Index of Missouri. Wikiquote ↗ instead cites the New York Post of 4 October 1959 — two days later. QI separately lists a 1992 quotation dictionary that carries the same New York Post citation.
  • QI records three earlier appearances of the same metaphor that are not credited to Paige: an 1890 piece in a Ravanna, Kansas newspaper, a 1917 Billy Sunday sermon printed in the Atlanta Constitution, and a 1920 newspaper filler item. Paige gets credit for the saying, not for inventing the image — Quote Investigator ↗.
  • A 1971 edition of Bartlett’s Unfamiliar Quotations carried the quotation but misspelled his name as “Sachel” — Quote Investigator ↗.
In copyright

The earliest documented appearance is a 1959 newspaper column, which falls well after the 1930 cutoff this site uses for United States public domain. Works published in 1959 required renewal to stay in copyright and many newspaper items were never renewed, but we have not checked the renewal record for this column, so we treat it conservatively as in copyright.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Whose line is it, exactly?

Paige is the right speaker. The complication is that the image was already in circulation when he used it.

An 1890 Kansas newspaper ancestor

A piece titled “Pray While the Sun Shines” ran in the Ravanna Chieftain in 1890, telling a story about a child taught to pray in fair weather as well as foul — Quote Investigator ↗.

Billy Sunday ancestor

The evangelist preached in 1917 that “They don’t pray when the sun shines, they wait until the storm rages,” as printed in the Atlanta Constitution — Quote Investigator ↗.

The New York Post, 4 October 1959 later citation

A 1992 quotation dictionary QI cites carries that New York Post date. QI’s own earliest citation is two days earlier, in an Associated Press column — Quote Investigator ↗.

“Sachel” Paige error

Bartlett’s Unfamiliar Quotations (1971) printed the quotation under a misspelling of his name — Quote Investigator ↗.

Quote Investigator’s conclusion ↗: Paige should receive credit for the statement, while using a figurative frame that reaches back to a nineteenth-century story and a Billy Sunday sermon.

Context

Four sentences on how to keep going

By 1959 Paige was in his fifties and had spent most of his career in the Negro leagues, barnstorming past the age at which most pitchers stop. The line arrives at the end of a short run of advice about not giving up, which is the register it belongs to: not piety, but stubbornness.

It works as an argument about fair-weather anything. Turn up only when you need something and you have not really turned up.

Turn up only when you need something and you have not really turned up.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Gratitude Character Hope

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: Don’t Pray When It Rainsquoteinvestigator.com

The full investigation: the 1959 AP column, the 1890 and 1917 precursors, and the conclusion crediting Paige.
Wikiquote: Satchel Paigeen.wikiquote.org

Sourced Paige quotations, each tied to a newspaper or magazine appearance.
Wikipedia: Satchel Paigeen.wikipedia.org

His career across the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball, and the Hall of Fame induction.
Quote Investigator: Satchel Paigequoteinvestigator.com

Nine Paige sayings QI has traced — several of them wrongly credited elsewhere.

The author

About Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige

1906–1982 · Negro leagues and Major League pitcher

Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige pitched across five decades, most of them in the Negro leagues, where he became one of the most famous and successful players in the game without being allowed into the major leagues. He finally reached them in 1948, at an age nobody could agree on, and in 1971 became the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame from the Negro leagues. He talked the way he pitched — unhurried, and with something on it.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Hal Boyle, “Famous Negro Pitcher in Love With Movies After First Role,” Associated Press, Moberly Monitor-Index (Moberly, MO), 2 October 1959, quote page 10, column 6; as documented in Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: Don’t Pray When It Rains If You Don’t Pray When the Sun Shines” (9 June 2019).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines’?” Last verified 26 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/dont-pray-when-it-rains-if-you-dont-pray-when-the-sun-shines/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied