Muhammad Ali Quotes

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'"

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."

"It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe."

"The man who has no imagination has no wings."

"I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick."

"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

"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."

"It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen."

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."

"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."

"It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself."

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."

"It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am."

"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."

"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."

"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer."

"If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you."

"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."

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

"It's not bragging if you can back it up."

"I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace."

"Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are."

"Superman don't need no seat belt."

"What keeps me going is goals."

"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."

"My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world."

"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."

"Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head."