Muhammad Ali Quotes

I started out making $4 for my first fight, but imagine paying $25,000 for a painting ... look at me!

To the people that have said I'm too small, I'm not fast enough, I don't have what it takes, I'm not strong enough. THANK YOU

Friendship is not something you can learn in college or some learning institution, no one knows how to become friends you just become but if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship you haven't learned anything

The whites have always had the say in America. White people made Jesus white, angels white, the Last Supper white. If I threaten you, I'm blackmailing you. A black cat is bad luck. If you're put out of a club, you're blackballed. Angel's-food cake is white; devil's-food cake is black. Good guys in cowboy movies wear white hats. The bad guys always wore black hats.

Money and riches don't mean nothing to me. I don't care nothing about being no rich individual. I'm not living for glory or for fame; all this is doomed for destruction. You got it today, tomorrow it's gone. I got bigger things on my mind than that. I got Islam on my mind.

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.

Death is the tax the soul has to pay for having a name and a form

Love is the net where hearts are caught like fish.

The only thing that matters is submitting to the will of God.

I outwit them, and then I outhit them

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.

Women are the field that produces our nation. And if you can't protect your women, you can't protect your nation.

I'm more at home with my log cabins than I am in my house in Cherry Hill.

I saw that streak in him when he told me, 'Get the hell out of here or I'll wipe you out., I got the hell out of there, Liston really scared me.

In the big leagues everyone has ability. It always comes down to mind games. Who ever is more mentally strong-wins.

His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.

Why are they picking on boxing? It's because the black men are so superior in boxing that they want to stop it. Well, the black man's so hungry he's got to fight.

A lot of wars are fought between black and whites daily in America.But if it's something I want to be with, the people who started it were black, I wouldn't not get in it.

I shook up the world, I shook up the world.

Fifteen referees. I want fifteen referees to be at this fight because there ain't no one man who can keep up with the pace I'm gonna set except me. There's not a man alive who can whup me. I'm too fast. I'm too smart. I'm too pretty. I should be a postage stamp. That's the only way I'll ever get licked.

If my fans think I can do everything I say I can do, then they're crazier than I am. After one of his fight predictions turned out to be wrong.

Last night I had a dream. When I got to Africa, I had one hell of a rumble. I had to beat Tarzan's behind first, for claiming to be King of the Jungle.

I predict that this will be the greatest book ever and it will sell more than any other book in history

Joe Frazier is ugly. He has no rhythm, no footwork, no class, he cannot talk.

I just felt the power and the meanness of the man I was messing with.

Outrun the people who quit when they feel discomfort, outrun the people who stop because of despair, outrun the people who are delayed because of prejudice, outrun the people who surrender to failure, and outrun the opponent who loses sight of the goal. Because if you want to win, the will can never retire, the race can never stop, and faith can never weaken.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 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? No I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years.

If Ali says a mosquito can pull a plow, don't ask how. Hitch him up.

I love my people and I don't hate nobody and it keeps me out of trouble.

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

The critics only made me work harder.

I don't know what truculent means, but if it's good, it's me

I am grateful for all my victories, but I am especially grateful for my losses, because they only made me work harder.

If the culprits are Muslim, they have twisted the teachings of Islam. Whoever performed, or is behind, the terrorist attacks in the United States of America does not represent Islam. God is not behind assassins.

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

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

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.'

What keeps me going is goals.

Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.

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

What I've found is that the religion that matters, the real religion is love.

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

I can drown a drink of water. I can kill a dead tree. Don't mess with Muhammad Ali.

I have a beautiful daughter, beautiful wife.They look like me, we all happy and I don't have no trouble. And I ain't that much in love with no woman to go through that hell - ain't no one woman that good.

I'm gonna show you how great I am.

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.

I'm most proud of my family

There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.

All I want now is to be a nice, clean gentleman. I've proved my point. Now I'm going to set an example for all the nice boys and girls. I'm through talking

This life is not real. I conquered the world and it did not bring me satisfaction.

I'm proud, and Islam did it. And after these things that I heard in church, a preacher and watching this and that, I knew something was wrong but I couldn't pinpoint it.

I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologise for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight.

When a man says I cannot, he has made a suggestion to himself. He has weakened his power of accomplishing that which otherwise would have been accomplished.

We can't be brave without fear.

No boxer in the history of boxing has had Parkinson's. There's no injury in my brain that suggests that the illness came from boxing.

I won the Olympic gold medal in Rome, Italy. Olympic champion. The Russian standing right here, and the Pole right here.

Elvis Presley was the sweetest, most humble and nicest man you'd want to know.

The worst man is the one who sees himself as the best.

The sweetness of life lies in dispensing with formalities.

The roughest and toughest fighter I fought was Joe Frazier

I give thanks to God and to all the people in the U.K. who have supported me over the years.

Allah is the Greatest. I'm just the greatest boxer

When you saw me in the boxing ring fighting, it wasn't just so I could beat my opponent. My fighting had a purpose. I had to be successful in order to get people to listen to the things I had to say.

No one starts out on top. You have to work your way up. Some mountains are higher than others, some roads steeper than the next. There are hardships and setbacks, but you can't let them stop you. Even on the steepest road, you must not turn back. You must keep going up. In order to reach the top of the mountain, you have to climb every rock.

You dont lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.

I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.

You don't have to be in a boxing ring to be a great fighter. As long as you are true to yourself, you will succeed in your fight for that in which you believe.

Hittin' hard don't mean nothing if you don't find nothin' to hit.

I'm going to, not I'm gonna. Talk intelligent

The crowd did not dream when they laid down their money that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny!

Religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways forms and times

What's really hurting me, the name Islam is involved, and Muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting hate and violence ... Islam is not a killer religion ... Islam means peace, I couldn't just sit home and watch people label Muslims as the reason for this problem.

Women are not equal with men, that's sure. When the woman is in danger she always looks to the man for help. We are superior by nature. The black or white woman needn't worry in life because the world is ruled by the white man.

Elijah Muhammad teaches us the truth of God beautified the planet by separating everybody in different countries for themselves: Chinese in China, English in England, Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico, Ethiopians in Ethiopia, Arabians in Arabia, Egyptians in Egypt, and Americans took that country and stole it away so there's always going to be trouble and chaos.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

Frazier's got two chances. Slim, and none. And Slim just left town

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.

Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You've got to work hard to get to them.

When your mother dies, it really hurts. But with time, you get used to it. That's nature's way

Love is a net that catches hearts like a fish

The day I met Islam, I found a power within myself that no man could destroy or take away from me.

Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not; In a single enemy thou hast more than enough.

The word 'Islam' means 'peace.' The word 'Muslim' means 'one who surrenders to God.' But the press makes us seem like haters.

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.

I'm the greatest, I'm a bad man, and I'm pretty!

Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong.

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.

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

The name Muhammad is the most common name in the world. In all the countries around the world - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon - there are more Muhammads than anything else. When I joined the Nation of Islam and became a Muslim, they gave me the most famous name because I was the champ.

I hated the sight on TV of big, clumsy, lumbering heavyweights plodding, stalking each other like two Frankenstein monsters, clinging, slugging toe to toe. I knew I could do it better ... circle, dance, shuffle, hit and move ... make an art out of it.

I don't always know what I'm talking about, but I know I'm right.

The outgoing and spontaneous person that the world knew while I was boxing was a persona that I created to sell tickets and promote my career. In my private life, I am quiet and reflective by nature.

Oh! how the hours hasten to change into days, the days into months, the months into years, and those into life's annihilation!

In America they got two policemen, five policemen and one car watching each other, each has got a pistol, one has got a machine gun, one' got a shotgun and two dogs growling at each other.

Every day is different, and some days are better than others, but no matter how challenging the day, I get up and live it.

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.

I'm gonna whup whoever stole my bike!

I've never really resented hard work because I've always liked it. Up every morning for roadwork. Going to the gymnasium every day at 12 o'clock. I never change my pattern.

My soul has grown over the years, and some of my views have changed. As long as I am alive, I will continue to try to understand more because the work of the heart is never done.

I want to be the first black man on the moon