Muhammad Ali
I don't have to be what you want me to be.
If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you - until you get your revenge.
I'm the greatest thing that ever lived! I'm the king of the world! I'm a bad man. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived.
It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.
I said I was 'The Greatest,' I never said I was the smartest!
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.
I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.
No one knows what to say in the loser's locker room.
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.
Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.
I've made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven't lived in vain.
I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.
Go up in an airplane. Go high enough, and it's like we don't even exist.
I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.
Allah's the Arabic term for God. Stand up for God, fight for God, work for God and do the right thing, and go the right way, things will end up in your corner.
Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can't talk. The man can't fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he's gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.
Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wild Life.
I shook up the world, I shook up the world.
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.
I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.
Superman don't need no seat belt.
Joe Frazier got hit more than me - and he doesn't have Parkinson's.
I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own.
My lectures, based on Islamic teachings, were on various subjects. Some of the titles were, 'The Intoxication of Life,' 'The Purpose of Life,' 'The Real Cause of Man's Distress,' 'The Journey to the Goal in Life,' and, one of my favorites, 'The Heart of Man.' They contained important insights that spoke to something deep inside me.
I'm no leader; I'm a little humble follower.
Don't feel sorry for me.
I didn't want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, 'Why did you do that?' This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.
I would say things like 'I am the greatest! I'm pretty! If you talk jive, you'll drop in five! I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! I'm pretty!' When white people heard me talking like this, some said, 'That black man talks too much. He's bragging.'
My toughest fight was with my first wife.
The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain't ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?
People don't realize what they had till it's gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing.
There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.
Cassius Clay is a name that white people gave to my slave master. Now that I am free, that I don't belong anymore to anyone, that I'm not a slave anymore, I gave back their white name, and I chose a beautiful African one.
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.
My trainer don't tell me nothing between rounds. I don't allow him to. I fight the fight. All I want to know is did I win the round. It's too late for advice.
To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, 'You're better than the Cassius of old.'
Life is so, so short. Bible says it's like a vapor.
The white man is destroying the world.
Terrorists are not following Islam. Killing people and blowing up people and dropping bombs in places and all this is not the way to spread the word of Islam. So people realize now that all Muslims are not terrorists.
I've been everywhere in the world, seen everything, had everything a man can have.
I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.
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.
All of us are so mixed. My great-grandfather was white.
America is the greatest country in the world.
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.
You can't keep your mind on fighting when you're thinking about a woman. You can't keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time.
Ever since I first came here in 1963 to fight Henry Cooper, I have loved the people of England.
We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all.