Quotes of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay)
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
“What keeps me going is goals.”
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”
“It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.”
“At home I am a nice guy: but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.”
“Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.”
“A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.”
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.”
“My way of joking is to tell the truth. That’s the funniest joke in the world.”
“We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.”
“I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
“My toughest fight was with my first wife.”
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
“Superman don’t need no seat belt.”
“Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
“Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.”
“I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.”
“I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.”
“I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round.”
“There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.”
“I’m so fast
that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed
before the room was dark.”
“When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.”
“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
“To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.”
“Wars of nations are fought to change maps.
But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”
“I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin’ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.”
“I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.”
“I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me.
It would be a better world.”
“I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.”
“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.”
“Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.”
“It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”
“It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.”
“The man who has no imagination has no wings.”
“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths.”
“Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.”
“Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.”
“The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
“If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
“Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.”
“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.”
“No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker room.”
“I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.”