quotes by Social Activist 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.”

“My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind.”

“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.”

“The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.”

“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”

“I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank.”

“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.”

“There is no color line in death. I swear to the lord I still can't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me. O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.”

“Through my grandmother's stories always life moved, moved heroically toward an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother's stories. They worked, or schemed, or fought. But no crying. When my grandmother died, I didn't cry, either. Something about my grandmother's stories (without her ever having said so) taught me the uselessness of crying about anything."”

“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.”

“The first of the month falls every month, too, North or South. And them white folks who sends bills never forgets to send them-the phone bill, the furniture bill, the water bill, the gas bill, insurance, house rent.”

“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.”

“Violent anger makes me physically ill.”

“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.”

“Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.”

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

“Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean- so get yourself a little loving in between.”

“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.”

“I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.”

“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.”

“Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling.”

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

“Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.”

“I'd like to live to a hundred.”