Muhammad Ali
The one thing I don't understand is war.Collection: War
Lakes, rivers, streams...all are water and all travel to the same destination. So it is with religion.Collection: Lakes
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.Collection: War
I don't look like no kiwi birdCollection: Bird
I think I could beat Joe Frazier singing. I was in a Broadway musical called Big Time Buck Wright.Collection: Thinking
On my twelfth birthday, I got a new bicycle as a present from my folks, and I rode it to a fair that was being held at the Columbia Gymnasium, and when I come out, my bike was gone. I was so mad I was crying, and a policeman, Joe Martin, come up and I told him I was going to whip whoever took my bike. He said I ought to take some boxing lessons to learn how to whip the thief better, and I did. That's when I started fighting.Collection: Fighting
Someone stole my bicycle and I said I was going to learn to fight so that I could catch him and beat him up. But I never did catch him. But I ended up the champ of the whole world.Collection: Fighting
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.Collection: Race
You been hearing about how bad I am since you were a little kid with mess in your pants! Tonight, I'm gonna whip you till you cry like a baby.Collection: Baby
I can love freedom and the flesh and blood of my people moreso than I do the money.Collection: Blood
I'd like to say that Muslims are never in violence with white people. It's the black man who love you. See, you don't let him in your toilet, you don't let him in your restroom, you don't let him marry your daughter, you gotta fight. So, we're not gonna be botherin' you, you understand. Muslims don't come in, we don't have no trouble with you. It's just the integrator.Collection: Daughter
You got black people in an all-white country and they don't know nothing about themselves.Collection: Country
I just give lip service to being the greatest. He was the greatest.Collection: Boxing
I didn't deny nothing I believe. I'm still the same everything.Collection: Believe
To succeed,all I need to do is suffer.Collection: Suffering
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?Collection: Dog
Be obedient to your superior, and your inferior will obey you.Collection: Obedience
Women are the field that produces our nation. And if you can't protect your women, you can't protect your nation.Collection: Women
My health is in the hands of Allah, who has ways of testing us. Whatever happens, happens. I a'int the greatest - it's Allah. I gave myself a job. I work for God.Collection: Wisdom
Islam religion has no color distinction, we are just Muslims.Collection: Color
I believe in the holy Koran. It says we declare ourselves to be righteous Muslims and do not take part in wars, or in no way fashion or form take the lives of humans unless it's a holy war declared by God himself.Collection: Fashion
You don't want no pie in the sky when you die, You want something here on the ground while you're still around.Collection: Sky
For the black man to come out superior would be against America's teachings. I have been so great in boxing they had to create an image like Rocky, a white image on the screen, to counteract my image in the ring. America has to have its white images, no matter where it gets them. Jesus, Wonder Woman, Tarzan and Rocky.Collection: Jesus
Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all.Collection: Greatness
It's the lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself. He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.Collection: Believe
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.Collection: Block
The woman is the fiber of the nation. She is the producer of life. A nation is only as good as its women.Collection: Fiber
My main purpose is to pray five times a day. And that's not easy.Collection: Purpose
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.Collection: Teacher
I have not lost Allah's hope in us to show compassion where none exists and to extend mercy in the most difficult of circumstances. We as Muslims must lead by example.Collection: Compassion
Prejudice comes from being in the dark; sunlight disinfects it.Collection: Inspiration
You can go to Japan, China, all the European, African, Arab, and South American countries, and man, they know me. I can't name a nation where they don't know me.Collection: Country
I'd like for them to say he took a few cups of love, he took one tablespoon of patience, teaspoon of generosity, one pint of kindness. He took one quart of laughter, one pinch of concern, and then, he mix willingness with happiness, he added lots of faith, and he stirred it up well, then he spreads it over his span of a lifetime, and he served it to each and every deserving person he met.Collection: Kindness
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.Collection: Country
Wouldn't it be a beautiful world if just 10 percent of the people who believe in the power of love would compete with one another to see who could do the most good for the most people?Collection: Beautiful
I hospitalized a rock, killed a brick...I'm so bad I make medicine sick!Collection: Funny
I barely got out of school, I got out of school, mainly, because I was a champ, and I actually didn't pass. I won't name the teachers that put me through, but I want. If I was not a Muslim, or a follower of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed I couldn't talk to somebody for two minutes. I believe I can hold my own as an intelligent conversation, but it all come from the Honorable Elijah Mohammed.Collection: Teacher
Boxing's a rough sport. After every fight I rush to the mirror to make sure I'm presentable.Collection: Sports
The teachings of Elijah Muhammad on how black people have been brainwashed.How they've been taught to love white and hate black, how we've been robbed of our names in slavery.We were robbed of our culture, we were robbed of our true history. So it left us a walking dead man.Collection: Hate
I'm not into fashion at all. I always wear the same thing: dark suits. I don't even know where I get them.Collection: Fashion
I knew I had him in the first round. Almighty God was with me. I want everyone to bear witness, I am the greatest! I'm the greatest thing that ever lived. I don't have a mark on my face, and I upset Sonny Liston, and I just turned twenty-two years old. I must be the greatest. I showed the world. I talk to God everyday. I know the real God. I shook up the world, I'm the king of the world. You must listen to me. I am the greatest! I can't be beat!Collection: Kings
I'm going to, not I'm gonna. Talk intelligentCollection: Intelligent
You can be free. You can be black. Look at me! I'm the Heavyweight Champion! Can't nobody stop me.Collection: Boxing
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.Collection: Children
Who would thought only of themselves and kill their race? You would hate other people if you don't want to stay who you are.Collection: Hate
Oh! how the hours hasten to change into days, the days into months, the months into years, and those into life's annihilation!Collection: Time
Boxing is just to introduce me to the struggle. Like, when I speak I draw people in the States to teach them various things or to give them dignity, pride and self-help. I have to help the dope and prostitution problem.Collection: Struggle