Hank Aaron famous quotes

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Sports

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

#Carpe Diem #Opportunity #Two

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

#Practice #Middle

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

#Motivational #Racism #Guy

It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
-- Hank Aaron

#Funny #Sports #Baseball

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

#Married #Hardest #Being Married

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.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Running #Home

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

#Baseball

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

#Wisdom #Failure #Rose

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

#Stars #Games #Shoes

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

#Sports #Baseball #Play

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

#Baseball #League #Guy

Failure will never stand int he way of success if you learn from it.
-- Hank Aaron

#Way

Failure is a part of success.
-- Hank Aaron

You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Hands #Long

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

#Motivational #Sports #Baseball

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

#Smile #Sports #Baseball

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

#Baseball #Running #Mistake

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.
-- Hank Aaron

#Past #Careers #Balls

There is no logical reason why girls shouldn't play baseball. It's not all that tough.
-- Hank Aaron

#Girl #Baseball #Sex

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

#Sports #Racism #Giants

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

#Thinking #Play #Guy

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

#Baseball #Successful #Games

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.
-- Hank Aaron

#Jobs #Athlete #White

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

#Successful #Guessing #Execution

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

#Wall #Home #Player

Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he's treated. We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country.
-- Hank Aaron

#Country #Feet #Long

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.
-- Hank Aaron

#Memories #People #Want

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

#Mean #Color #Play

I played sometimes about as dull as you can play it. I did things the right way, you know. I think I modeled my playing ability after one of the all time greats, Joe DiMaggio. You always found Joe, when he played, you know, he always threw to the right base. He ran, he caught the ball. He did all the right things. He was an idol of mine in the outfield. He played the game the way it was supposed to be played.
-- Hank Aaron

#Thinking #Idols #Games

[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

#Father #Vegetables #People

I had many, many, many death threats. I couldn't open letters for a long time, because they all had to be opened by either the FBI or somebody. I couldn't open letters. I had to be escorted. In fact, just recently I went to a funeral, Calvin Wardlaw, who was the detective -- the policeman -- with me for two years, passed away just recently. He and I got to be bosom buddies really, but that was the hardest part. I wasn't able to enjoy -- you know.
-- Hank Aaron

#Years #Two #Long

I never doubted my ability, but...
-- Hank Aaron

#African American #Ability #Doubted

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

#Sports #Running #Baseball

Roger Maris lost his hair the season he hit sixty-one, I still have all my hair, but when it's over, I'm going home to Mobile and fish for a long time.
-- Hank Aaron

#Home #Hair #Long

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

#Baseball #Running #Home

I never smile when I have a bat in my hands. That's when you've got to be serious.
-- Hank Aaron

#Smile #Hands #Bats

Can I smoke now without someone taking my picture?
-- Hank Aaron

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

#Years #Names #Ruth

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

#Running #Home #Kids

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

#Baseball #Want #Firsts

I came to the Braves on business, and I intended to see that business was good as long as I could.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Long #Brave

Last year, I was sort of a kid and I was a little scared, I ain't scared any more.
-- Hank Aaron

#Kids #Years #Littles

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

#Hurt #Years #Games

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.
-- Hank Aaron

#Done

I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, Im going to be ready for his curve ball. 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

#Player #Curves #Games

Consistency is what counts; you have to be able to do things over and over again.
-- Hank Aaron

#Basketball #Consistency #Able

I was being thrown to the wolves. Even though I did something great, nobody wanted to be a part of it. I was so isolated. I couldn't share it. For many years, even after Jackie Robinson, baseball was so segregated, really. You just didn't expect us to have a chance to do anything. Baseball was meant for the lily-white.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Years #White

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

#Player #People #Brave

Baseball is a lot like the ivy-covered wall of Wrigley Field--it gives off a great appearance, but when you run into it, you discover the bricks underneath. At times, it seems that we're dealing with a group of men who aren't much different than others we've all run into over the years, except they wear neckties instead of robes and hoods.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Running #Wall

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

#Baseball #Mean #Differences

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

#Play #Names #Brave

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

#Sports #Thinking #Games

I'm sure glad this isn't my home ball park.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Home #Balls

The way I see it, it's a great thing to be the man who hit the most home runs, but it's a greater thing to be the man who did the most with the home runs he hit. So as long as there's a chance that maybe I can hammer out a little justice now and then, or a little opportunity here and there, I intend to do as I always have -- keep swinging.
-- Hank Aaron

#Running #Home #Opportunity

Didn't come up here to read. Came up here to hit.
-- Hank Aaron

#Come Up

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

#People #Ruth #Want

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

#Jobs #Black #President

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

#Country #Thinking #Proud

Looking at the ball going over the fence isn't going to help.
-- Hank Aaron

#Baseball #Balls #Helping

I think what separates a superstar from the average ballplayer is that he concentrates just a little bit longer.
-- Hank Aaron

#Inspirational #Motivational #Thinking

Once the record was mine, I had to use it like a Louisville Slugger. I believed, and still do, that there was a reason why I was chosen to break the record. I feel it's my task to carry on where Jackie Robinson left off, and I only know of one way to go about it. It's the only way I've ever had of dealing with things like fastballs and bigotry -- keep swinging at them.
-- Hank Aaron

#Tasks #Louisville #Use