Muhammad Ali
All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them.
It's in my blood to be around people while I was training.
White people just don't want their slaves to be free. That's the whole thing.
The Nation of Islam's main focus was teaching black pride and self-awareness. Why should we keep trying to force ourselves into white restaurants and schools when white people didn't want us? Why not clean up our own neighborhoods and schools instead of trying to move out of them and into white people's neighborhoods?
I give thanks to God and to all the people in the U.K. who have supported me over the years.
There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.
I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.
I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.
If I said I would knock out Sonny Liston in 1 minute and 49 seconds of the first round, that would hurt the gate.
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.
You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman's behind.
I got no quarrel with them Vietcong.
I had a good time boxing. I enjoyed it - and I may come back.
You dont lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.Collection: Knocked Down
Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don't be afraid to take that first step.Collection: Beginners
Don't count the days, make the days count.Collection: Inspirational
Success is not achieved by winning all the time. Real success comes when we rise after we fall. Some mountains are higher than others. Some roads steeper than the next. There are hardships and setbacks but you cannot let them stop you. Even on the steepest road you must not turn back.Collection: Real
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.Collection: Freedom
True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values.Collection: Compromise
We all have the same God, we just serve him differently. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways forms and times. It doesn't matter whether you're a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can't love only some of his children.Collection: Love
Whoever knocks persistently, ends by entering.Collection: Patience
What you are thinking is what you are becoming.Collection: Uplifting
Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision.Collection: Inspirational
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.Collection: Inspirational
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.Collection: Butterfly
If you look at the world the same way when you're 50 that you did when you were 20, then you wasted 30 years.Collection: Years
My toughest opponent has always been me.Collection: Opponents
Rest but never quit. Even the sun has a sinking spell each evening. But it always rises the next morning. At sunrise, every soul is born again.Collection: Morning
When you're right, nobody remembers. When you're wrong, nobody forgets.Collection: Remember
God will not place a burden on a man's shoulders knowing that he cannot carry it.Collection: Men
It isn't the mountains that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.Collection: Shoes
You lose nothing when fighting for a cause ... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about.Collection: Fighting
There comes a time in every person's life when he has to choose the course his life will take.Collection: There Comes A Time
You're not going to enjoy every minute of the journey, but the success you'll find at the end will make it all worth it.Collection: Motivational
When one man of popularity can let the world know the problem, he might lose a few dollars himself. He might lose his life. But he's helping millions.Collection: Men
When a chivalrous man makes an oath, he is faithful to it, and when he attains power, he spares his enemy.Collection: Men
Fighting by itself doesn't interest me anymore. I want to help people, the black people and I need any kind of media to spread my thought: God, charity, peace.Collection: Fighting
What I've found is that the religion that matters, the real religion is love.Collection: Real
Elvis Presley was the sweetest, most humble and nicest man you'd want to know.Collection: Humble
That man was beautiful. Timing, speed, reflexes, rhythm, his body, everything was beautiful. And to me, still, I would say pound for pound... I'd say I'm the greatest heavyweight of all time, but pound for pound, I still say Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest of all time.Collection: Beautiful
I don't consider myself no attractive man. People like Tom Jones and Elvis Presley - I'm not nothing like that.Collection: Men
I tried to be the greatest boxer in the world and a good parent, too. I had instant feedback on my success as a boxer. Often, parents don't really know if what they are doing is right or wrong until their child is grown and it is too late to change any of the decisions. Whatever my failings as a parent, I am very proud of all my children. It wasn't easy for them to make their own way with such a controversial and public father.Collection: Children
You have a right to say what you believe, and I have a right.Collection: Believe
Religions all have different names, but they all contain the same truths. ... I think the people of our religion should be tolerant and understand people believe different things.Collection: Believe
A lot of boxers' features change - mainly when I fight 'emCollection: Fighting
I didn't run with a gang - I didn't have time. There were a few little street gangs sitting in the spotlights at night time - talking and playing marbles. But I was so wrapped up in boxing since I was 12.Collection: Running
Impossible is nothing.Collection: Inspirational
In Florida I was illiterate, Boxing Authority didn't want me, then they had a special psychiatrist to come to Kentucky, they checked and they didn't want me. But as soon as my name was Mohammed Ali, as soon as I announced I was a Muslim, then all of a sudden I became smart.Collection: Smart
Ali’s got a left, Ali’s got a right, if he hits you once, you’re asleep for the nightCollection: Night