Hank Aaron Quotes

#1. On the field, blacks have been able to be super giants. But, once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again.

Hank Aaron

#2. I never doubted my ability, but ...

Hank Aaron

#3. I can't recall a day this year or last when I did not hear the name of Babe Ruth.

Hank Aaron

#4. I would like people not to think in terms of the 755 home runs I hit but think in terms of what I've accomplished off the field and some of the things I stood for.

Hank Aaron

#5. You got to play a hundred and fifty games a year, so pick your spots. You can miss two games a month; so pick the days you're gonna be hurt, or you're gonna rest or you're gonna have a drink or two. The rest of the time, be on that field.

Hank Aaron

#6. Making the majors is not as hard as staying there, staying interested day after day. It's like being married. The hardest part is to stay married.

Hank Aaron

#7. In baseball, there is something electrifying about the big leagues. I had read so much about (Stan) Musial, (Ted) Williams and (Jackie) Robinson. I had put those guys on a pedestal. They were something special. I really thought they put their pants on different, rather than one leg at a time.

Hank Aaron

#8. Can I smoke now without someone taking my picture?

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#9. I don't want people to forget Babe Ruth. I just want them to remember Henry Aaron.

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#10. The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage in weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.

Hank Aaron

#11. I thought my chances to make the Braves were better and that they were being fairer to me, paying me more money to play in a lower classification ... Besides, the Giants spelled my name "Arron" on their telegram.

Hank Aaron

#12. I am very proud to be an American. This country has so much potential, I'd just like to see things better, or whatever, and I think it will be.

Hank Aaron

#13. There's only one way to break the color line. Be good. I mean, play good. Play so good that they can't remember what color you were before the season started.

Hank Aaron

#14. I had just turned 20, and Jackie told me the only way to be successful at anything was to go out and do it. He said baseball was a game you played every day, not once a week.

Hank Aaron

#15. You may not think you're going to make it. You may want to quit. But if you keep your eye on the ball, you can
accomplish anything.

Hank Aaron

#16. Failure is a part of success.

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#17. I think about how a guy mentally prepared himself to do battle, to go out and face the pitcher. I think so many hitters do not know how to get themselves prepared to play or hit against a pitcher. You have to mentally be prepared to hit against all pitchers.

Hank Aaron

#18. I'm hoping someday that some kid, black or white, will hit more home runs than myself. Whoever it is, I'd be pulling for him.

Hank Aaron

#19. There wasn't much white people would allow us to do in those days. You could be a schoolteacher or an athlete to get away from the manual labor and servant-type jobs, but there wasn't much else they were going to allow you [to] do.

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#20. Last year, I was sort of a kid and I was a little scared, I ain't scared any more.

Hank Aaron

#21. I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice.

Hank Aaron

#22. The thing I like about baseball is that it's one-on-one. You stand up there alone, and if you make a mistake, it's your mistake. If you hit a home run, it's your home run.

Hank Aaron

#23. I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious. When I get out on the field, nothing's a joke to me. I don't feel like I should walk around with a smile on my face.

Hank Aaron

#24. I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.

Hank Aaron

#25. Consistency is what counts; you have to be able to do things over and over again.

Hank Aaron

#26. In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.

Hank Aaron

#27. I never thought we'd ever have a black president. President Obama has done such a tremendous job ... He just has been unable to get what he needs to be moved at the level it should be moved.

Hank Aaron

#28. I need to depend on Someone who is bigger, stronger and wiser than I am. I don't do it on my own. God is my strength. He gave me a good body and some talent and the freedom to develop it. He helps me when things go wrong. He forgives me when I fall on my face. He lights the way.

Hank Aaron

#29. I've tried a lot of things in the off-season, but the only thing I really know is baseball.

Hank Aaron

#30. You visualize [pitches]. You see it in your head; you think it ... I used to play every pitcher in my mind before I went to the ballpark. I started getting ready for ever game the moment I woke up.

Hank Aaron

#31. I'm sure glad this isn't my home ball park.

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#32. Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.

Hank Aaron

#33. [My father] didn't make much money, and I tell a lot of people, you know, I was a vegetarian before people knew what a vegetarian was. That's all I ate was vegetables.

Hank Aaron

#34. There is no logical reason why girls shouldn't play baseball. It's not all that tough.

Hank Aaron

#35. Does Pete (Rose) hustle? Before the All-Star game he came into the clubhouse and took off his shoes and they ran another mile without him.

Hank Aaron

#36. The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them.

Hank Aaron

#37. To this day, whenever I'm in Milwaukee, which is often, I'm reminded that the people there still haven't gotten over the Braves leaving ... If it helps, they should know the players haven't either.

Hank Aaron

#38. I think what separates a superstar from the average ballplayer is that he concentrates just a little bit longer.

Hank Aaron

#39. My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.

Hank Aaron

#40. I came to the Braves on business, and I intended to see that business was good as long as I could.

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#41. Didn't come up here to read. Came up here to hit.

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#42. You know what the hardest thing is? What nobody wants to understand
is me. People want their memories of me to be my memories of me. But you know what? They're not.

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#43. Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80% of being a successful hitter. The other 20% is just execution.

Hank Aaron

#44. The first thing baseball wants to do is make you a superstar and then say that you owe baseball something. I don't owe baseball anything. Baseball owes me.

Hank Aaron

#45. I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.

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#46. Whatever we do, make sure we clean up baseball.

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#47. I never thought home runs were all that exciting. I still think the triple is the most exciting thing in baseball. To me, a triple is like a guy taking the ball on his 1-yard line and running 99 yards for a touchdown.

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#48. I don't feel right unless I have a sport to play or at least a way to work up a sweat.

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#49. Failure is part of success.

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#50. Looking at the ball going over the fence isn't going to help.

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#51. You've got to remember, the older you get the slower you get. I've seen a lot of players get old ... if I can have a good season in 1972 and come back with another good one, well, that's different. I might not quit. But two bad ones back to back and staying home would be written on the wall.

Hank Aaron

#52. You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail.

Hank Aaron

#53. If I knew exactly what I know now and had it to do over, I'd be a switch hitter. No telling what I could have done.

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#54. Baseball needs me because it needs somebody to stir the pot, and I need it because it's my life. It's the means I have to make a little difference in the world.

Hank Aaron

#55. What you do with your life and how you do it is not only a reflection on you, but on your family and all of those institutions that have helped to make you who you are.

Hank Aaron

#56. It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. It took one afternoon on the golf course.

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#57. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life.

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#58. Maybe the day will come when I can sit back and be content ... But until that day comes, I intend to stay in the batter's box - I don't let the big guys push me out of there anymore - and keep hammering away.

Hank Aaron