Muhammad Ali Quotes

“Floyd Paterson? Boy, he's the complete opposite to me. He no way like me. They go down in history for just being athletes. I'm getting more praise and credit for doing what I'm doing now on this show than coming here and beating five of your English champions.”

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

“Superman don't need no seat belt.”

“I had something to do, which most kids really need. Something they can look forward to - a goal, a purpose to work towards. Something to achieve. Keeps them out of trouble.”

“If I could meet anybody? The prophet Muhammad.”

“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.”

“I'm gonna have to be killed before I lose, and I ain't going to die easy.”

“Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wild Life.”

“My principles are more important than the money or my title.”

“Friendship is not something you can learn in college or some learning institution, no one knows how to become friends you just become but if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship you haven't learned anything”

“If you wonder what the difference between them and me is, I'll break the news: you never heard of them. Most of them ... can fight almost as good as I can. I'm just saying you never heard of them.”

“I have nothing to lose by standing up and following my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We have been in jail for years.”

“I said to myself, 'the champion of the whole world can whoop every man in Russia, every man in America, every man in China, every man in Japan, every man in Europe - every man in the whole world'.It sounds big, didn't it? So I kept working until I did it.”

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

“No one knows what to say in the loser's locker room.”

“It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.”

“When you come to the fight Don't block the halls and don't block the door, for y'all may go home after round four.”

“Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place for all.”

“Fifteen referees. I want fifteen referees to be at this fight because there ain't no one man who can keep up with the pace I'm gonna set except me. There's not a man alive who can whup me. I'm too fast. I'm too smart. I'm too pretty. I should be a postage stamp. That's the only way I'll ever get licked.”

“There were so many fellows ranked over me I couldn't just whoop them all. I had to out-shadow them by talking.”

“Children make you want to start life over.”

“I never thought of losing, but now that it' s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”

“Brooding over blunders is the biggest blunder.”

“Put yourself out on a limb, sucka, like me! - young Cassius Clay to heavily favored thug Sonny Liston during the weigh in before Cassius wins his first title and changes his name to Muhammad Ali.”

“The sun is always shining someplace.”

“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.”

“Don't feel sorry for me.”

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

“Some gems for the greatest of them all”

“Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone and hospitalized a brick.”

“My toughest fight was with my first wife.”

“I had it in my heart. I believed in myself, and I had confidence. I knew how to do it, had natural talent and I pursued it.”

“Now I had won the gold medal. But it didn't mean anything, because I didn't have the right color skin.”

“I'm the fastest thing on two feet.”

“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.”

“When I meet a new person, I don’t see race or religion. I look deeper. We must learn to satisfy our conflicts peacefully and to respect one another.”

“I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.”

“I'd like to live to a hundred.”

“I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”

“The worst man is the one who sees himself as the best.”

“That's okay, I'm still the Greatest.”

“I shook up the world.”

“I didn't even need America, I was so popular outside the country, until the prosecutin' attorney came from Washington, and said, judge, we cannot let this man go to Japan and fight, because they are anti-American.Now, if I want to leave the country, I know how to leave. Tomorrow. Quick. Easy. If I really want to leave. That's not the intention. The intention is to stop me from makin' a livin'. To punish me.”

“You can go to Japan, China, all the European, African, Arab, and South American countries, and man, they know me. I can't name a nation where they don't know me.”

“You got black people in an all-white country and they don't know nothing about themselves.”

“When I beat Sonny Liston, I shocked the world. When I joined the Muslims, I shocked the world. When I beat George Forman, I shocked the world. I am from the House of Shock”

“Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

“Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not; In a single enemy thou hast more than enough.”

“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.”

“There is one hell of a difference between fighting in the ring and going to war in Vietnam.”