Muhammad Ali

The man who has no imagination has no wings.
– Muhammad Ali

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
– Muhammad Ali

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
– Muhammad Ali

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
– Muhammad Ali

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.
– Muhammad Ali

It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.
– Muhammad Ali

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.
– Muhammad Ali

Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.
– Muhammad Ali

It’s not bragging if you can back it up.
– Muhammad Ali

Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.
– Muhammad Ali

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
– Muhammad Ali

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.
– Muhammad Ali

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your
life as a champion.”
– Muhammad Ali

What keeps me going is goals.
– Muhammad Ali

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.
– Muhammad Ali

I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest.
– Muhammad Ali

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep
conviction, things begin to happen.
– Muhammad Ali

I have wrestled with an alligator, that’s right, I have wrestled with an alligator… I have
handcuffed lightning… only last week I have murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized
a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick!
– Muhammad Ali

Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.
– Muhammad Ali

My toughest fight was with my first wife.
– Muhammad Ali

I’m a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I’m no cheek turner. I got no respect
for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.
– Muhammad Ali

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it.
– Muhammad Ali

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.
– Muhammad Ali

Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the
hating. It’s just plain wrong.
– Muhammad Ali

I’m the greatest, I’m a bad man, and I’m pretty!
– Muhammad Ali

Others may know pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a
shadow following a man.
– Muhammad Ali

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water.
Just as religions do – they all contain truths.
– Muhammad Ali

I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger.
– Muhammad Ali

If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.
– Muhammad Ali

I don’t count my sit-ups – I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the
only ones that count.
– Muhammad Ali

– Superman don’t need no seat belt.
– Superman don’t need no airplane, either.
– Muhammad Ali, flight attendant

Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep
inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision.
– Muhammad Ali

I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
– Muhammad Ali

I’m young, I’m handsome, I’m fast, I’m pretty, and can’t possibly be beaten.
– Muhammad Ali

Give up what appears to be doubtful for what is certain. Truth brings peace of mind, and
deception doubt.
– Muhammad Ali

We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.
– Muhammad Ali

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
– Muhammad Ali

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.
– Muhammad Ali

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
– Muhammad Ali

Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
– Muhammad Ali

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.
– Muhammad Ali

I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.
– Muhammad Ali

I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident,
cocky. My name, not yours. My religion, not yours. My goals, my own. Get used to me.
– Muhammad Ali

Don’t count the days, make the days count.
– Muhammad Ali

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.
– Muhammad Ali

My way of joking is to tell the truth. That’s the funniest joke in the world.
– Muhammad Ali

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.
– Muhammad Ali

I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock them out, I pick the round.
– Muhammad Ali

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school.
But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.
– Muhammad Ali

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.
– Muhammad Ali

There are two things that are hard to hit and see, that’s a spooky ghost and Muhammed Ali.
– Muhammad Ali

What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.
– Muhammad Ali

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.
– Muhammad Ali