Muhammad Ali famous quotes

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

#Funny #Sports #Jobs

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

#People #Reason

A black, a Puerto Rican and a Mexican are in a car. Who's driving? The police.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Car #Mexican #Police

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

#Thinking #Chance

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 ***** 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

#Ohio #Rivers #Black History

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

#Purpose #Praying #Easy

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Fitness

I live. I travel. I eat. I pray. These are the things I do. I'd rather be in my condition than be a man with four children in a four-bedroom house, working hard every day to pay for his house, taking his children to school.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Children #School #Men

Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don't be afraid to take that first step.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Firsts #Steps #Beginners

I'm The Greatest, but only in relation to fighting.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Fighting #Relation

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

#Army #Two #Jail

Fighting by itself doesn't interest me anymore. I want to help people, the black people and I need any kind of media to spread my thought: God, charity, peace.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Fighting #Media #People

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Life #Motivational #Happy Birthday

I don't know how many millions I'll make, so I have to give some back to charity. God blesses me with the money, but only if I give some away.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Giving #Charity #God Bless

Don't count the days, make the days count.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Inspirational #Successful #Carpe Diem

I never push in front my muscles, only my religion, so I'm protected.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Muscles

I try to learn as much as I can because I know nothing compared to what I need to know.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Justice #Trying #Needs

Women are not equal with men, that's sure. When the woman is in danger she always looks to the man for help. We are superior by nature. The black or white woman needn't worry in life because the world is ruled by the white man.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Men #White #Worry

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

#Change #Money #War

Put yourself out on a limb, sucka, like me! - young Cassius Clay to heavily favored thug Sonny Liston during the weigh in before Cassius wins his first title and changes his name to Muhammad Ali.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Winning #Thug #Names

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

#Fighting #Greatness #Mind

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

#Inspirational #Life #Success

You dont lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down.
-- Muhammad Ali

The man who will whip me will be fast, strong and hasn't been born yet.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Strong #Men #He Man

Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Inspirational #Motivational #Dream

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

#Inspirational #Sports #Determination

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

#Motivational #Success #Softball

There comes a time in every person's life when he has to choose the course his life will take.
-- Muhammad Ali

#There Comes A Time #Persons

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

#Running #Courage #Famous Inspirational

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

#Religious #Greatness #Names

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

#Cocky #Greatness #Names

I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Motivational #Greatness #Boxing

If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Hilarious #Dream #Love Yourself

I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,
-- Muhammad Ali

#Quarrels

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

#Basketball #Fighting #Helping Others

I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That's what makes you a champion.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Life #Hurt #Champion

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

#War #Fighting #Differences

God gave me this illness to remind me that I'm not Number One; He is.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Numbers #Illness

The man who has no imagination has no wings.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Inspirational #Motivational #Sports

Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you're going to be right.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Life #Crush #Uplifting

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

#Boxing #Mosquitoes

When a man says I cannot, he has made a suggestion to himself. He has weakened his power of accomplishing that which otherwise would have been accomplished.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Positive #Men #Suggestions

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

#Sports #Running #Light

People don't realise 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.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Men #Boxing #People

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Positive #Motivational Sports #Inspiration

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

#Wisdom #Real #Islamic

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

#Sports #Boxing #World

Just remember that you don't have to be what they want you to be.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Want #Remember

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

#Holocaust #Cartoon #Germany

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

#Love #Life #Relationship

I'm going to show you how great I am!
-- Muhammad Ali

#Shows

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

#Humorous #Men #Justice

It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Inspiring #Impossible #Dare

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.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Hurt #Believe #Past

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

#Motivational #Faith #Confidence

Most people don't pray until they're in trouble. When people need help they pray a lot. But after they get what they want, they slow down. If a man takes five showers a day, his body will be clean. Praying five times a day helps me clean my mind.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Wisdom #Islamic #Men

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

#Hate #Inspiration #Greatness

Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Sports #Impossible #Dare

I was saying "I'm the greatest" long before I believed it.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Long #Goal

I have learned to live my life one step, one breath, and one moment at a time, but it was a long road. I set out on a journey of love, seeking truth, peace and understanding. I am still learning.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Journey #Long #Understanding

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

#Positive #Brother #Good Life

The only limitations one has, are the ones they place on themselves
-- Muhammad Ali

#Work Out #Limitation

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.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Dark #Greatness #Light

I don't smoke but I keep a match box in my pocket, when my heart slips towards sin, I burn the matchstick and heat my palm with it, then say to myself, "Ali you can't even bear this heat, how would you bear the unbearable heat of hellfire?"
-- Muhammad Ali

#Islamic #Heart #Unbearable

My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Funny #Life #Truth

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

#Dark #Justice #Prejudice

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.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Country #Turkeys #Names

I'm the best. I just haven't played yet.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Golf

When I meet a new person, I don’t see race or religion. I look deeper. We must learn to satisfy our conflicts peacefully and to respect one another.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Race #Looks #Conflict

My soul has grown over the years, and some of my views have changed. As long as I am alive, I will continue to try to understand more because the work of the heart is never done.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Heart #Views #Years

Children make you want to start life over.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Children #Silly #Want

We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Past #Lasts

Success is not achieved by winning all the time. Real success comes when we rise after we fall.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Real #Fall #Winning

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.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Motivational #Success #Dance

I shook up the world.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Boxing #World

I'm too fast. I'm too smart. I'm too pretty.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Smart

The one without dreams is the one without wings.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Dream #Wings

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Life #Motivational #Believe

Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone and hospitalized a brick.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Climbing #Rocks #Stones

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

#Love #Heart #Boxing

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.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Funny #Motivational #Sports

You can go to Japan, China, all the European, African, Arab, and South American countries, and man, they know me. I can't name a nation where they don't know me.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Country #Men #Names

I'm so fast I could hit you before God gets the news.
-- Muhammad Ali

#News #Accomplish

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

#Uplifting #Thinking #Becoming

A man with no imaginations has no wings.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Men #Wings #Imagination

I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Wisdom #Islamic #Believe

Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Body #Pearls #Sacred

Whatever the challenge was, however unattainable the goal may have seemed, I never let anyone talk me out of believing in myself.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Believe #Goal #Challenges

Every day is different, and some days are better than others, but no matter how challenging the day, I get up and live it.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Challenges #Matter #Different

Why do I want my wife to show off her panties when the wind blows? Horses show their behinds, and cows and mules, not humans
-- Muhammad Ali

#Horse #Blow #Wind

It's the lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself. He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Believe #People #Challenges

You don't want no pie in the sky when you die, You want something here on the ground while you're still around.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Pie #Sky #Want

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

#Real #Fall #Winning

I've never let anyone talk me into not believing in myself
-- Muhammad Ali

#Believe

If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Inspiring #Encouraging #Sports

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

#Greatness #Marketing #World

When it comes to love, compassion, and other feelings of the heart, I am rich.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Heart #Compassion #Feelings

All through my life, I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Endurance

Superman don't need no seat belt.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Greatness #Needs #Belts

There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.
-- Muhammad Ali

#Inspiration #Fighting #Winning