“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.”

“Boldness be my friend.”

“I can call spirits from the vasty deep.”

“Your wisdom is consum'd in confidence. Do not go forth to-day.”

“What, no more ceremony? See, my women! Against the blown rose may they stop their nose That kneel'd unto the buds.”

“The soul of this man is his clothes.”

“Fair ladies, masked, are roses in their bud;Dismasked, the damask sweet commixture shown,Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.”

“MY greatest regret in life is that I never became the heavyweight boxing champion ofthe world.”

“I did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it. I was intrigued by how one moved one's body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat, how one paced oneself over a match.”

“I figure I'll be champ for about ten years and then I'll let my brother take over - like the Kennedys down in Washington.”

“All nobility in its beginnings was somebody's natural superiority.”

“Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority; perfect equality affords no temptation.”

“The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.”

“If thou art rich, thou art poor; for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.”

“O momentary grace of mortal men,Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!”

“We will all laugh at gilded butterflies.”