Muhammad Ali Quotes & Sayings

When a chivalrous man makes an oath, he is faithful to it, and when he attains power, he spares his enemy. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. — Muhammad Ali

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

Some gems for the greatest of them all — Muhammad Ali

Enjoy your children, even when they don't act the way you want them to — Muhammad Ali

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 — Muhammad Ali

There is one hell of a difference between fighting in the ring and going to war in Vietnam. — Muhammad Ali

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

Success is not achieved by winning all the time. Real success comes when we rise after we fall. Some mountains are higher than others. Some roads steeper than the next. There are hardships and setbacks but you cannot let them stop you. Even on the steepest road you must not turn back. — Muhammad Ali

I got it made the rest of my life, financially and in every other way. There's nobody in the world like me. I'm getting out just in time. If I was twenty seven, I could still kick ass. I don't have to beat Holmes. Why? I raised him, he worked three years as a sparring partner for me. — Muhammad Ali

Parkinson's is my toughest fight. No, it doesn't hurt. It's hard to explain. I'm being tested to see if I'll keep praying, to see if I'll keep my faith. All great people are tested by God — Muhammad Ali

I've made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven't lived in vain. — Muhammad Ali

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 — Muhammad Ali

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

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

I just give lip service to being the greatest. He was the greatest. — Muhammad Ali

Truly great people in history never wanted to be great for themselves. All they wanted was the chance to do good for others and be close to God. — Muhammad Ali

Boxing is good for the livelihood but mainly, money don't really mean nothing. — Muhammad Ali

There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people. — Muhammad Ali

I just can't see myself with a man on the ropes and just to prove how bad I am - and I see in his eyes, his head, he's hopeless - and I'm just deliberately hitting. I don't do that. — Muhammad Ali

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

Do you know why I'm the fastest heavyweight in the world? I'm the only heavyweight that trains underwater! — Muhammad Ali

They used to draw cartoons of Jews in Germany. Later they started killing them in the Holocaust. — Muhammad Ali

Recognize how every moment of our journey is an important part of the growth of our soul. I — Muhammad Ali

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wild Life. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

God will not place a burden on a man's shoulders knowing that he cannot carry it. — Muhammad Ali

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

I was in a Broadway musical called Big Time Buck Wright.The play didn't make it but I was a success. It lasted six days but I sung four songs and there were critics, seriously, in New York who said that my part was perfect. So I can beat Joe Frazier singing. — Muhammad Ali

Number one comes freedom first for my people and equality. And this is what I plan to do after I'm through fighting - working with nothing but the people, the little people in the alleys: the downtrodden people, going out and helping them with my image. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

What counts in the ring is what you can do after you're exhausted. The same is true of life. — Muhammad Ali

I'm just hoping that people understand that Islam is peace and not violence. — Muhammad Ali

If the boxers are a little more colorful, talk a little like I did and just do half as much as I did for boxing, it will be all right. — Muhammad Ali

I said to myself, 'the champion of the whole world can whoop every man in Russia, every man in America, every man in China, every man in Japan, every man in Europe - every man in the whole world'.It sounds big, didn't it? So I kept working until I did it. — Muhammad Ali

When you want to talk about who made me, you talk to me. Who made me is ME. — Muhammad Ali

Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people — Muhammad Ali

My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father ... Shoot them for what? How do I got to go shoot them, poor little black people, little babies, children, and women? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail. — Muhammad Ali

Do not be ashamed to give a little; for to deceive is to give still less. — Muhammad Ali

I can remember a couple of real fights when I ran. Because they were kinda dangerous. — Muhammad Ali

A lot of boxers' features change - mainly when I fight 'em — Muhammad Ali

There's a reason I'm known - to bring people to Allah, to God. — Muhammad Ali

I run on the road long before I dance under the lights. — Muhammad Ali

I say get an education. Become an electrician, a mechanic, a doctor, a lawyer, anything but a fighter. In this trade, it's the managers that make the money and last the longest. — Muhammad Ali

What's my greatest weakness? Sad stories, people with problems — Muhammad Ali

If you want to be equal with me, you can get your own Rolls-Royce, your own house and your own million dollars. — Muhammad Ali

Sometimes Howard [Cosell] makes me wish I was a dog and he was a fireplug. — Muhammad Ali

When you're right, nobody remembers. When you're wrong, nobody forgets — Muhammad Ali

I am so mean I've handcuffed lightnin' and thrown thunder in jail. — Muhammad Ali

What keeps me going is goals. — Muhammad Ali

I could see it. I could almost feel it. When I proclaimed that I was the greatest of all time, I believed in myself, and I still do. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

I think I could beat Joe Frazier singing. I was in a Broadway musical called Big Time Buck Wright. — 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

I'm gonna have to be killed before I lose, and I ain't going to die easy. — Muhammad Ali

We spend more time learning how to make a living than we do learning to make a life. — Muhammad Ali

I Ain't Got No Quarrel With The VietCong ... No VietCong Ever Called Me Nigger. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

I understand that the worst people in England at a time were ran to America, for some reason.
Then slavery came and calls of aggression. But we've been there 600 years and there ain't no peace between black and whites because the cultures are different - like the Chinese and Mexicans cannot integrate: the music is different, the eating is different. — Muhammad Ali

What you are thinking is what you are becoming. — Muhammad Ali

Eat your words! Eat your words! I am the greatest. — Muhammad Ali

I don't see no black and white couples in England or America walking around proud holding their children and going out. — Muhammad Ali

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

I said I was the greatest, not the smartest. — 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

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 — Muhammad Ali

Who is the descendant of the slavemasters a descendant of slaves to fight other people in thier own country? — Muhammad Ali

I sought the advice and cooperation from all those around me- but not permission. — Muhammad Ali

God tries you in certain, certain ways. Some people are rich, and they believe in God. They lose the money, things get hard, they get weak and quit going to church. Quit serving God like they did. — Muhammad Ali

I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a <>. — Muhammad Ali

I love boxing and it did a lot for me. But sometimes it made me think how savage human beings could be to each other. That wasn't the kind of boxer I wanted to be. My strategy was to be as scientific as I could when I fought. I didn't want to be seriously hurt, and I didn't want to do that to anybody else either. — Muhammad Ali

I always asked my mother, I said, 'Momma, how come is everything white?' I said, 'Why is Jesus white with blond hair and blue eyes? Why is the Lord's supper all white men? Angels are white, the Pope, Mary, and even the angels.' I said, 'Mother, when we die, do we go to Heaven?' She said, 'Naturally we go to Heaven.' I said, 'Well, what happened to all the black angels?' — Muhammad Ali

My mama told me I was already in a hurry as a child. I even had measles and chicken pox at the same time — Muhammad Ali

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

People don't realize what they had till it's gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing. — Muhammad Ali

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

There ain't no such thing as black Muslims. That's how they tried to cut off all my brothers in the rest of the world and divide us in America and make other Muslims think that we are not with them.We are all the same. I recognise them and they recognise me. I'm invited to all of their homes all over the world and I'm invited to Muslim countries. — Muhammad Ali

All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them. — Muhammad Ali

I wasn't thinking of being the greatest. But I knew I had a chance. — Muhammad Ali

The sun is always shining someplace — Muhammad Ali

It's hard to beat a guy when he's got his mind made up that he's going to win. — Muhammad Ali

Lighting that torch in Atlanta didn't make me nervous. Standing up to the government - that made me nervous — Muhammad Ali

To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are. — Muhammad Ali

Christians are my brothers, Hindus are my brothers, all of them are my brothers. We just think different and believe different. — Muhammad Ali

Love is a net that catches hearts like a fish — Muhammad Ali

My definition of evil is unfriendliness — Muhammad Ali

Maybe I was great in the ring, but outside of boxing, I'm just a brother like other people. I want to live a good life, serve God, help everybody I can. And one more thing. I'm still gonna find out who stole my bike when I was 12 years old in Louisville and I'm gonna whup him. That was a good bike. — Muhammad Ali

People will know you're serious when you produce. — Muhammad Ali

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

When my title was taken away boxing died. — Muhammad Ali

I hospitalized a rock, killed a brick ... I'm so bad I make medicine sick! — Muhammad Ali

I'm the king of the world, I am the greatest, I'm Muhammed Ali, I shook up the world, I am the greatest, I'm king of the world, I'm pretty, I'm pretty, I'm a baaaad man, you heard me I'm a baaad man, Archie Moore fell in four, Liston wanted me more, so since he's so great, I'm a make him fall in eight, I'm a baaad man, I'm king of the world! I'm 22 years old and ain't gotta mark on my face, I'm pretty, I easily survived six rounds with that ugly bear, because I am the greatest. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

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. — Muhammad Ali

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer. — Muhammad Ali

I strongly object to the fact that so many newspapers have given the American public and the world the impression that I have only two alternatives in taking this stand: either I go to jail or go to the Army. There is another alternative and that alternative is justice. If justice prevails, if my Constitutional rights are upheld, I will be forced to go neither to the Army nor jail. In the end I am confident that justice will come my way for the truth must eventually prevail. — Muhammad Ali

I'm young, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty, and can't possibly be beat. They must fall in the round I call. — Muhammad Ali

I came back to Louisville after the Olympics with my shiny gold medal. Went into a luncheonette where black folks couldn't eat. Thought I'd put them on the spot. I sat down and asked for a meal. The Olympic champion wearing his gold medal. They said, "We don't serve niggers here." I said, "That's okay, I don't eat 'em." But they put me out in the street. So I went down to the river, the Ohio River, and threw my gold medal in it. — Muhammad Ali

My main purpose is to pray five times a day. And that's not easy. — Muhammad Ali