You have to feel comfortable being uncomfortable. I'm always comfortable being uncomfortable. And to be comfortable being uncomfortable, I have to hone my discipline, which to me is doing what I have to do, but also doing it like I love it.
You have to compete in life because if you don't have no competition - no competition, no spirit, you know, you'll fall under the slightest struggle.
Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.
I did not take the name, I just named myself Cassius Clay, this is a honorable, Mohammed Ali, given to me by my religious leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, and I would like to say that Mohammed means in Arabic "one who is worthy of praise" and one praiseworthy, and Ali means the most High, but the slave name Clay meant dirt with no ingredients.
You can't be everybody's friend, you can't save the world, I learned this word: self-preservation. Once you do that, you can be friends with people, but how would you be a friend to anybody if you're not a friend to yourself.
I don't try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That's nonsense. I intimidate people by hitting them.
The word had spread and people were piling around us. But then very suddenly, Sonny Liston froze me with that look of his. He said real quiet, 'Let's go on over here.' And he led the way to a table and the people hung back. I ain't going to lie. This was the only time since I have known Sonny Liston that he really scared me.
If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize.
We all have struggles in life but we have to continue to fight
You stand your ground and you perform your art. That's what the artist does. The artist is about perfection.
I just want them to keep bringing guys on and I'am going to strip them of their health. I bring pain a lot of pain.
I know I'm going to blow one day. My life is doomed the way it is. I have no future.
I normally don't do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them.
My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world.
Sometimes you have to wait for the right deal. They all seem good, at least at first, and they may make you some quick money. But when the right deal comes, and it fits into your [overall] plan, it's just overwhelming success. Sometimes, with the long-term deals, you have to take a risk if you're going to get a reward. It's exactly like fighting. Sometimes you have to take chances to get that huge win.
I was in a Broadway musical called Big Time Buck Wright.The play didn't make it but I was a success. It lasted six days but I sung four songs and there were critics, seriously, in New York who said that my part was perfect. So I can beat Joe Frazier singing.
Basically I don't care what people think of me. I'm not in the communications business.
I would say that I put down a lot of the white American culture, and ways, and beliefs.
I earned that the strong will always beat the weak, but the smart will beat the strong. Boxing is a tough guy sport. But in the end, the tough guy gets to clean the streets and be a bodyguard. In the ring, the tough guy is going to get hurt; at the end of the day, he's going to talk funny. Only the smartest win. So, I know it's cliché, but power - real power - comes from knowledge, comes from smarts.
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.
King has big offices, houses, and he pays his fighters a lot of money. An, because he's black, the FBI figures he must be doing something crooked.
It's the emotional punches that you can't see that are just overwhelmingly devastating to your heart - your moral fiber.
The most important thing in the world for show business, really, you know everything's a high-tech business, but what people want now is what they can't get - exclusivity.
Scatter abroad what you have already amassed rather than pile up new wealth.
The sun is always shining someplace.
Sometimes, the people we invest the most time in disappoint us the most.
The one thing I know, everyone respects the true person and everyone's not true with themselves. All of these people who are heroes, these guys who have been lily white and clean all their lives, if they went through what I went through, they would commit suicide. They don't have the heart that I have. I've lived places they can't defecate in.
I started out making $4 for my first fight, but imagine paying $25,000 for a painting...look at me!
Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.
That computer was made in Alabama
Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wild Life.
You can be free. You can be black. Look at me! I'm the Heavyweight Champion! Can't nobody stop me.
Hannibal rode elephants into cartilage
If you can't remember the small things, how are you going to remember the big things? The mind is a real dangerous neighborhood to travel by ourselves.
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 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.
The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain't ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?
Every punch I threw with bad intentions to a vital area...I aimed for his ear...I wanted to bust his eardrum...Every punch had bad intentions...My record will last for immortality, It'll never be broken...I want to live forever...I refuse to lose...I would have to be carried out dead to lose...I was coming to destroy and win the Heavyweight Championship of the World, which I done.
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.
In the ring I can stay until I’m old and gray because I know how to hit and dance away
I ain't the same person I was when I bit that guy's ear off.
Fifty years old, 212 fights, and I'm still pretty.
I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.
I'm the fastest thing on two feet.
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.
During my boxing career, you did not see the real Muhammad Ali. You just saw a little boxing and a little showmanship. It was after I retired from boxing that my true work began.
I just want to try everything. I want to see how good I can be, the best I can be at what I'm doing. I want to do everything. You know? I want to be in a musical. I want to do everything. I want to try and sing.
I try my best to learn from other people's mistakes. I have a lot of respect for people who can change.
Who is the descendant of the slavemasters a descendant of slaves to fight other people in thier own country?
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.
I'm gonna make sure you talk about me, and your grandkids and kids after that gonna know about me...your great grandkids will say "wow, wasn't that a bizarre individual?"
I have the world heavyweight title not because it was 'given' to me, not because of my race or religion, but because I won it in the ring through my own boxing ability.
There's nothing like being young, and happy, and fighting.
I hated the sight on TV of big, clumsy, lumbering heavyweights plodding, stalking each other like two Frankenstein monsters, clinging, slugging toe to toe. I knew I could do it better ... circle, dance, shuffle, hit and move ... make an art out of it.
I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.
You think the speed of your fingers can match the strength of my fists?
It's good to be successful and have financial status but if you're only gonna live for the money, you're only gonna reach a certain status and I'm in there for greatness and peace of mind.
Being in the ring became my reality, and, in my reality, I'd think I was someone special.
Who's gonna dare to be great?
Every day is different, and some days are better than others, but no matter how challenging the day, I get up and live it.
