Muhammad Ali Quotes

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

Ain’t no reason for me to kill nobody in the ring, unless they deserve it.

If you were surprised when Nixon resigned, just watch what happens when I whup Foreman’s behind!

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

I’m retiring because there are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.

Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.

I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round.

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

Floats like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.

I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick.

I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.

Superman don’t need no seatbelt.

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.

I’m the best. I just haven’t played yet. – on playing golf

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

Only the nose knows where the nose goes when the doors close.

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.

Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name – it means beloved of God – and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me.

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.

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 while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?

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.

A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.

I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I’ll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I’m gonna tell ya, that’s one helluva man, and God bless him.

Now you see me, now you don’t. George thinks he will, but I know he won’t!

Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.

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

Wisdom is knowing when you can’t be wise.

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. That’s the funniest joke in the world.

Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.

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.

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.

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams — they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do — they all contain truths.

Prejudice comes from being in the dark; sunlight disinfects it.

I’m so fast that last night I turned the light switch off in my bedroom and I was in bed before the room was dark.

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.

If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.

My face is so pretty, you don’t see a scar, which proves I’m the king of the ring by far.

Joe’s gonna be smokin’ an’ I ain’t even jokin but I’ll be peckin’ and a pokin’ and I’ll pour water on that smokin’. Now this might astound and amaze ya but I will destroy Joe Frazier.

I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.

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.’

It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.

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

Here I predict Sonny Liston’s dismemberment, I’ll hit him so hard, he’ll forget where October-November went.

My toughest fight was with my first wife, and she won every round.

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

I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

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

At home I am a nice guy: but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.

Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

I am the greatest; I said that even before I knew I was.

I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.

I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.

No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker room. – Muhammad Ali