Hank Aaron Quotations

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

We need to be concerned about young people . . . if we don't protect them, how are we going to protect this country?

Leo, if I'm not calling you, everything's fine. If I'm calling you all the time, something isn't right.

I don't want them to forget Ruth, I just want them to remember me!

Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution.

I think what the commissioner is trying to do is trying to put an end to all of this. I know people have said, 'Where is this investigation going, and what purpose?' But I think he's trying to put an end to it.

I think it's very much a distraction to the ball club, and that is a cancer, you just get done playing the best team in baseball, the team has been playing very well, despite everything ... it's just a distraction, and it is a cancer,

I think of this award as being what we call 'The Year of the Complete Ballplayer,' ... The player that has done the most not only for his team, but has done most to help his team win baseball games. Not only for home runs, runs batted in and batting average, but also in the clubhouse.

I'm here to support the commissioner and tougher drug penalties.

To this day, I don't know how he withstood the things he did without lashing back. I've been through a lot in my time, and I consider myself to be a patient man, but I know I couldn't have done what Jackie did. I don't think anybody else could have done it. Somehow, though, Jackie had the strength to suppress his instincts, to sacrifice his pride for his people.

Discover Greatness: An Illustrated History of Negro Leagues Baseball,

That's going to be left up to the commissioner and the rules committee. They would probably have to go back and look at some of those things that happened.

That's going to be left up to the commissioner and the rules committee.

This is wonderful, no doubt about it. You can tell by the fans that it's catching on and is going to get better and better.

It makes me feel good to walk through there and know that some of the things that Negro League players played for has been preserved, and people can go in there, and look at it.

I want to applaud the commissioner, and I also just want to make sure that whatever we do, we make sure that we clean up baseball.

It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.

I hope that these kids are given an opportunity to play, because whatever happened before, they had nothing to do with it. I just hope they have an opportunity to compete. They really deserve to. They have some great ballplayers in Cuba.

I knew his father very well. And yes, I think I would owe it not only to Barry. I owe it to his father to respect everything that this young man has accomplished.

I'm not thinking about Barry right now. I've answered those questions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Failure is part of success.

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

Whatever we do, make sure we clean up baseball.

I used to love to come to the ballpark. Now I hate it. Every day becomes a little tougher because of all this. Writers, tape recorders, microphones, cameras, questions and more questions. 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.

I never doubted my ability, but...

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Can I smoke now without someone taking my picture?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Failure is a part of success.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.