Muhammad Ali Quotes

Sometimes Howard [Cosell] makes me wish I was a dog and he was a fireplug.

This relationship will help guarantee that, for generations to come, people of all nations will understand my beliefs and my purpose

We're not trying to take power away or rule anybody - we're just trying to get up from under the rulers.

Every time I look in the mirror, I see that kid from Louisville, Kentucky, staring back at me. His name was Cassius Clay.

I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.

I think we're all brothers - that's the truth. But the press gave us the name black Muslims to cut us off from the others.

The crowd did not dream when they laid down their money that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny!

If you look at the world the same way when you're 50 that you did when you were 20, then you wasted 30 years.

I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.

Holmes is so ugly, his grandmother said when he started to cry the tears would stop and roll down the back of his head.

Life is like a ship. There's people dancing on a ship.There's a lot of money on the ship, but I cannot integrate on the ship or get equality on the ship.And I never could. I'm just in the galley working and I never could get up to see the captain of the ship.

I've never let anyone talk me into not believing in myself

I have a radar built inside me to avoid punches

I said I was the greatest, not the smartest.

I just try to stay half way decent looking. Boxing's a rough sport and you get hit a lot.

Whether it's boxing, basketball, or badminton, one must be ready to succeed before entering the arena...long before the lights come up.

I have to be real cool and not savage and radical, because it makes me angry when I think about it when I see the white boys, who are really the number one citizens, the future rulers.

Stay in college, get the knowledge. And stay there until you're through. If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you. Advice to a young person to continue his education.

I tell you what I really fear. I fear aeroplanes. When the flight's all right and smooth I'm still thinking, 'what if the engine blow up?' 'What if a fool's got a bomb on it?'

You can't keep your mind on fighting when you're thinking about a woman. You can't keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time.

I've seen George Foreman shadow boxing, and the shadow won.

Boxing is a stepping stone just to introduce me to the audience. If I was still in Louisville, Kentucky and never was a boxer I still might get killed next week in some kind of freedom struggle and you'd ever hear the news.

Get up sucker and fight. Get up and fight

I have more fans and more followers and more supporters. Because the people who actually saw the Joe Frazier Muhammad Ali fight, they saw me win at least nine rounds - the people who know boxing.

Love is a net that catches hearts like a fish

Sonny Liston is great. But he'll fall in eight.

Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong.

I sought the advice and cooperation from all those around me- but not permission.

Do not be ashamed to give a little; for to deceive is to give still less.

Friendship is definitely the most difficult detail on the globe to elucidate. It is really not something you understand at school. But if you have not realized the which means of friendship, you truly have not realized anything.

When my title was taken away boxing died.

We are stone enemies when the bell rings

Mr. president, I've been a citizen of the United States of America for thirty three years and was never invited to the White House. It sure gives me pleasure to be invited to the Black House.

I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologise for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight.

Put yourself out on a limb, sucka, like me!

I outwit them, and then I outhit them

Emmett Till and I were about the same age. A week after he was murdered... I stood on a corner with a gang of boys, looking at pictures of him in the black newspapers and magazines. In one, he was laughing and happy. In the other, his head was swollen and bashed in, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, and his mouth twisted and broken... I couldn't get Emmett Till out of my mind, until one evening I thought of a way to get back at white people for his death.

There are billions of people in the world, and every one of them is special. No one else in the world is like you.

I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.

My soul has grown over the years, and some of my views have changed. As long as I am alive, I will continue to try to understand more because the work of the heart is never done.

I try to learn as much as I can because I know nothing compared to what I need to know.

The world’s champ should be pretty like me!

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman's behind.

I need to get everything straight. I'm not involved in a power struggle between black and white.

I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.

Number one comes freedom first for my people and equality. And this is what I plan to do after I'm through fighting - working with nothing but the people, the little people in the alleys: the downtrodden people, going out and helping them with my image.

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

I'm going to, not I'm gonna. Talk intelligent

Catching flies is better training than hitting the speed bag

I'm definitely gonna be the People's champion ... but I just ain't gonna be the champ the way you want me to be the champ. I'm gonna be the champ the way I wanna be.

How many push ups do you do? I don't know. I only starts counting when it starts hurting

Boxing is just to introduce me to the struggle. Like, when I speak I draw people in the States to teach them various things or to give them dignity, pride and self-help. I have to help the dope and prostitution problem.

I understand that the worst people in England at a time were ran to America, for some reason.Then slavery came and calls of aggression. But we've been there 600 years and there ain't no peace between black and whites because the cultures are different - like the Chinese and Mexicans cannot integrate: the music is different, the eating is different.

Black men - one might be the president. Well, America's in too much trouble - I don't want that job now.

Frazier's got two chances. Slim, and none. And Slim just left town

White people cannot destroy me like they have other big ministers of Elijah Mohammed in the past by telling us oh, you speak good, you should be the leader.

I do a lot of reading, a lot of studying. I ask questions, I'll go out, travel these countries, I'll watch how their people live, and I learn.

My mama told me I was already in a hurry as a child. I even had measles and chicken pox at the same time

When your mother dies, it really hurts. But with time, you get used to it. That's nature's way.

I was always curious. I always wondered why Tarzan is the King of the Jungle in Africa, he was white.