I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Preparation, Planning
What keeps me going is goals.
—Muhammad Ali
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
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Protest
When a chivalrous man makes an oath, he is faithful to it, and when he attains power, he spares his enemy.
—Muhammad Ali
I am the greatest. Not only do I knock em out, I pick the round!
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Pride
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.
—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
I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Learning
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 late 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.
—Muhammad Ali
I never thought of losing, but now that it’ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Success & Failure
Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Silence
It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
—Muhammad Ali
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Risk
Children make you want to start life over.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Family
I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Humility
Man’s rise or fall, success or failure, happiness or unhappiness depends on his attitude … a man’s attitude will create the situation he imagines.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Optimism, Positive Attitudes
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
—Muhammad Ali
Where do you think I’d be next week if I didn’t know how to shout and holler and make the public take notice? I’d be poor and I’d probably be down in my home town, washing windows or running an elevator and saying
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Racism
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Imagination
Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Age, Aging
You lose nothing when fighting for a cause … In my mind the losers are those who don’t have a cause they care about.
—Muhammad Ali
It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Confidence, Faith
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
Topics: Learning
Pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Happiness
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Service, Earth, Helping
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
I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.
—Muhammad Ali
The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Experience, Self-Discovery
I’m the best. I just haven’t played yet.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Golf
When you are as great as I am it is hard to be humble.
—Muhammad Ali
Topics: Humility
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- Malcolm X American Civil Rights Leader
- Michael Jordan American Sportsperson
- Reggie Miller American Basketball Player
- Bruce Jenner American Sportsperson
- Carly Patterson American Sportsperson
- Larry Bird American Sportsperson
- Charles Barkley American Sportsperson
- Billie Jean King American Tennis Player
- Jack Nicklaus American Sportsperson
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