Muhammad Ali is generally considered the greatest boxer who ever lived. Yet, aside his real talent inside the ring, Ali was a showman like nothing the world has ever seen before or since. He makes Floyd Mayweather seem as bland as Manny Pacquiao.
Ali was the brashest, most arrogant, trash talker the world had ever seen. He had the biggest mouth in the world, and the talent to back it up. His hubris knew no bounds.
On the occasion of his passing away, we reproduce here dozens of his best ever quotes.
THE BEST QUOTES OF MUHAMMAD ALI
“Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn’t choose it, and I didn’t want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name, and I insist people using it when speaking to me and of me.”
- “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see. Now you see me, now you don’t. George [Foreman] thinks he will, but I know he won’t.
- “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.”
- “I’m young; I’m handsome; I’m fast. I can’t possibly be beat.”
- “Don’t count the days; make the days count.”
- “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it—then I can achieve it.”
- “Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
- “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.”
- “Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.”
- “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.”
- “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
- “If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologise.”
- “Braggin’ is when a person says something and can’t do it. I do what I say.”
- “I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.”
- “I’m not the greatest. I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round. I’m the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skillfullest fighter in the ring today.”
- “I’m the onliest person that can speak to everybody in the whole world. My name is known in Serbia, Pakistan, Morocco. These are countries that don’t follow the Kentucky Derby.”
- “Joe’s gonna come out smokin’, but I ain’t gonna be jokin’. This might shock and amaze ya. But I’m going to destroy Joe Frazier.”
- “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.”
- “I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
- “I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.”
- “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
- “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
- “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
- “A man who has no imagination has no wings.”
- “I’ve wrestled with alligators. I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning. And throw thunder in jail.”
- “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
- “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
- “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.”
- “Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”