Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
Superman don't need no seat belt.
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.
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did
at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
There are more pleasant things to do than beat up
people.
There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights
have been a pleasure to win.
Only the nose knows, Where the nose goes, When the
door close.
People don't realize what they had till it's gone.
Like President Kennedy - nobody like him. Like The Beatles, there will never be anything like them. Like my man, Elvis Presley
- I was the Elvis of boxing.
Prejudice comes from being in the dark; sunlight disinfects
it.
Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different
names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do - they all contain truths.
Service to others is the rent you pay for your
room here on earth
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.
Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars
of poverty are fought to map change.
We have one life; it soon will be past; what we
do for God is all that will last.
What keeps me going is goals.
When you are as great as I am it is hard to be humble.
When you can whip any man in the world, you never
know peace.
My toughest fight was with my first wife.
My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the
funniest joke in the world.
No one knows what to say in the loser's locker room.
Old age is just a record of one's whole life.
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 hard to be humble, when you're as great as I
am.
It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound
the sand. I beat people up.
It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting
challenges, and I believed in myself.
It's not bragging if you can back it up.
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.
If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread,
they can sure make something out of you.
If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake
up and apologize.
It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear
you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
I wish people would love everybody else the way they
love me. It would be a better world.
I'll be floating like a butterfly and stinging
like a bee.
I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put
his hat on.
I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not
only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.
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.
I'm the best. I just haven't played yet.
It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to
belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
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.
Love is a net that catches hearts like a fish
I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah
and peace.
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.
I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince
the world that I really was the greatest.
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ''Don't
quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.''
Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men
beat each other up.
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 last-minute stamina, they have to
be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face
to the US Bureau of Wild Life.
Friendship... is not something you learn in school.
But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.
Hating people because of their color is wrong.
And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.
He who is not courageous enough to take risks
will accomplish nothing in life.
I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey
were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own.
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.
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.
I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights.
Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as
you think you are.
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.
I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew
I was.
I am the greatest. Not only do I knock em out,
I pick the round!
A man who views the world the same at fifty as he
did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
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.
