“I don't count my situps. I only start counting once it starts hurting.”
“Hittin' hard don't mean nothing if you don't find nothin' to hit.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I said I was 'The Greatest,' I never said I was the smartest!”
“I should be a postage stamp, because that's the only way I'll ever get licked. I'm beautiful. I'm fast. I'm so mean I make medicine sick. I can't possibly be beat.”
“America is the greatest country in the world.”
“I don't call myself a political figure but I'm taken to be.”
“I'm The Greatest, but only in relation to fighting.”
“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.”
“Islam religion has no color distinction, we are just Muslims.”
“I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own.”
“It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
“Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”
“It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.”
“Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people”
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
“Fifty years old, 212 fights, and I'm still pretty.”
“I didn't deny nothing I believe. I'm still the same everything.”
“I'm most proud of my family.”
“I live. I travel. I eat. I pray. These are the things I do. I'd rather be in my condition than be a man with four children in a four-bedroom house, working hard every day to pay for his house, taking his children to school.”
“A lot of boxers' features change - mainly when I fight 'em”
“The man who will whip me will be fast, strong and hasn't been born yet.”
“If we continue to think and live as if we belong only to different cultures and different religions, with separate missions and goals, we will always be in self-defeating competition with each other. Once we realize we are all members of humanity, we will want to compete in the spirit of love.”
“Black people we've been taught that we will never be free, until some will have to die, some will have to give up wealth, their loved ones, and their health, So, what I'm doin' is for myself and for justice for black people, runnin' will kill it all, it'll make me a coward.”
