Boxer Quotes

“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.”

“They say actually every time I enter the ring, in a way, I`m going to the war. They say to me daily, you are a prized fighter, what`s the difference? And I like to say to those critics of the press and the others that there is one hell of a lot of difference in fighting in a ring and going to war in Vietnam.”

“The same people that are with me for not going to Vietnam because I saved them and their children.The same people will give me hell if I turn to them and say, 'let's free my people now'.They're with me on one part of my beliefs about the war, that's all. Not for my freedom.”

“Home is the place you can go when you're whipped.”

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

“I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning And throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”

“If you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”

“It's not bragging if you can back it up.”

“The woman is the fiber of the nation. She is the producer of life. A nation is only as good as its women.”

“Enjoy your children, even when they don't act the way you want them to.”

“They can boo me, yell at me, and throw peanuts at me, as long as they pay to get in.”

“Even today, if my title hadn't been given back to me and I was in such poverty where I had to go and find a job, I would have done that.”

“I'll leave you with one that I have hanging on my office wall, compliments of Nike: Impossible is nothing.”

“While Frazier was a man of few words / Ali was a world of mouth / but he found his place in history / Now his heart can express him well / Joe Frazier was a silent warrior / whom Ali silently admired / One could not rise without the other”

“You know I hate fighting. If I knew how to make a living some other way, I would.”

“We black people, as a whole, are at war we'll say with the white power structure. Not physically, but we have definite protests to win the battle.”

“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.”

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

“My face is so pretty, you don’t see a scar, which proves I’m the king of the ring by far.”

“Every day is different, and some days are better than others, but no matter how challenging the day, I get up and live it.”

“I'll destroy you. I am the master of disaster.”

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

“True giving happens when we give from our heart.”

“Whatever the challenge was, however unattainable the goal may have seemed, I never let anyone talk me out of believing in myself.”

“Whoever knocks persistently, ends by entering.”