Muhammad Ali > Quotes

“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

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
― Muhammad Ali

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it.”
― Muhammad Ali, The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey

“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

“Don't count the days, make the days count.”
― 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

“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.”
― 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, The greatest: My own story

“Often it isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the little pebble in your shoe.”
― Muhammad Ali

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
― Muhammad Ali

“I’ve wrestled with alligators,
I’ve tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning
And throw thunder in jail.
You know I’m bad.
just last week, I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.
I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
― Muhammad Ali

“The Service you do for others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”
― Muhammad Ali

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
― Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times

“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
― 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’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.”
― Muhammad Ali

“The man with no imagination has no wings.”
― Muhammad Ali

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.”
― 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

“What you're thinking is what you're becoming.”
― 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

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

“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, then they can sure make something out of you.”
― Muhammad Ali

“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

“Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.”
― 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

“It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
― Muhammad Ali

“It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.”
― Muhammad Ali

“I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace. ”
― Muhammad Ali

“It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”
― Muhammad Ali