Top 98 Quotes & Sayings by Don King

Machiavelli taught me it was better to be feared than loved. Because if you are loved they sense you might be weak. I am a man of the people and help them but it is important to do so through strength.

Only in America can a Barack Obama happen. Only in America can a Don King happen.

There's nothing I love more in life than turning around a bigot.

If a bullfrog had wings it wouldn't bump his behind every time he hopped.

My career is one of people involvement. I'm a promoter of the people, by the people, for the people. My magic lies, my people ties, this is what I want to do. I'm in it to win, I cant give in, I can't give up and I cant quit. Victory is mine. Working together works.

I'm a promoter of the people for the people and by the people and my magic lies in my people ties. I'm a promoter of America. I'm American people. You know what I mean? So therefore, uh, do not send for who the bell tolls 'cause the bell tolls for thee.

Martin Luther King took us to the mountain top: I want to take us to the bank.

Mike Tyson was one of the most terrific athletes I've ever met.

You go for the quality of the performance, not the longevity of it.

You can't rule the world, but what you can do is win the world with love and understanding.

All of my fighters should get down on their knees and thank me for what I've done for them.

He worked for the day when all people would be clothed in dignity.

If you cast your bread upon the water and you have faith, you'll get back cash. If you don't have faith, you'll get soggy bread.

I will fight for America until the day I drop.

I don't promote boxing, I promote people. Boxing is a catalyst to bring people together.

I would never know how good I was if I didn't have Bob Arum. Bob Arum is white, Jewish; He was working for prosecutor's office. I'm black, an ex-convict, ex-number runner. Who would be most likely to succeed? It would be Bob 100-1. Yet I beat Bob on everything we ever done, with love.

It ain't about if he knocks a guy out. It's about how he knocks a guy out. It's the style, the improvisation.

James Brown died owing me $50,000. But I loved James Brown.

You can be the greatest guy in the world but if you ain't got no heart, you ain't gonna survive.

Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favourite child.

I'm an ardent American Football fan.

Mike Tyson has been given every penny he has coming.

Reality show? You can't find anything better than boxing because of the trials and errors, the ups and downs, the struggle when you get knocked down to get back up. Use it symbolically and interchangeably for life.

Muhammad Ali - he was a magnificent fighter and he was an icon... Every head must bow, every knee must bend, every tongue must confess, thou art the greatest, the greatest of all time, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali.

My hair is God's aura. Everything went up when I got home from the penitentiary. One night I went to lie down next to my wife, and my hair started popping and uncurling all on its own - ping, ping, ping, ping! I knew that it was God telling me to stay on the righteous path so he could one day pull me up to be there with him.

I transcend earthly bounds. I never cease to amaze myself because I haven't yet found my limits. I am quite ready to accept the limits of what I can do, but every time I feel that way - boom! - God touches me and I do something that's even more stupendous than whatever I've done up to then.

If you are a blackman in America and get stopped by the police, make sure you have a vidio camera. Don't rely on some passerby to film the beating. Rodney King was just lucky.

From the very beginning I used sound business practices in everything I did. White businessman uses them to make money he's a genius. Black businessman uses them he's a crook. That's the way it is.

You don't get nothing from sleep but a dream.

When you lose the title, that doesn't mean you lose the contract to what you had. Just like when you win the title, it doesn't mean you win brains, PhDs and MAs.

Who would you vote most likely to succeed? Bob Arum - White, Jewish, a graduate of Harvard, a Kennady Raider, United States Attorney. Don King - black, poor, out of the hard core getto of Cleveland, Ohio, numbers runner, a little confectionary dealer, ex-convict. Now who would you vote to succeed? It would be hands down........ Yet in this great land called America, I have out performed, outachieved, been more recognizable, did more, broke more records, and had more of a phenominal career, where Arum can't tie my shoe string. You understand?

If you want to sell a steak, you can't just have the sizzle, you gotta have sauce.

There's nothing wrong with options. Options are everywhere. In movies, in sports. Options is not a dirty word. I need to pay my overheads, you know. I invest a lot of money developing a fighter and then I deserve to reap the rewards.

I'm the best promoter in the world because I haven't taken a day off work since I left the penitentiary, and because I have read all the great philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinine.

I tell Donald Trump that the establishment will tell their lies. They will try to keep him down. I tell him, 'Now Mr. Trump, they're treating you like a black man.' I say, 'Mr. President, you know what it's like to be a black man. No matter what you say or do, you are guilty as hell.'

Man, I've been to jail. It was hell in there, but I survived, If they put me back, I'll come out again. I'm one of the world's great survivors. I'll always survive because I've got the right combination of wit, grit and bullshit.

Opportunity is the greatest charity.

Oh yes, the Klitschkos. They got to learn how to fight. Period. But I'll tell you one thing - they're great human specimens. And I'd be happy to be able to work with them. If they chose to work with me. They had an opportunity when they got free of Peter Kohl - they didn't come to me. You know, I'm with who's with me. And I really don't care what fighter it is. I would be happy to promote them..Who could beat Vitali? Rahman could beat Vitali. His style is suited to beat Vitali.

Only in america will you see people circling the parking lot looking for a close space at a gym.

I had a moment of religious epiphanosity.

When we started, it was based on lies. It's changing now. There are no secrets in the business. You've got to come with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It's becoming very confusing.

You sign an agreement; you make a contract, you live up to it. You never get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. You got a right to say yay or nay.

When you can count your money, you ai'nt got none.

She's (Christy Martin) voluptuous and intoxicating no smear lipstick. Here's a woman who pounds it out and her lipstick don't smear. Revlon should jump on that like white on rice, you know what I mean? Max Factor, Elizabeth Arden.

Martin Luther King took us to the mountain top: I want to take us to the bank

You see, the problem with me is I'm so good even my friends think I'm doing something wrong. Flair and flamboyance is not illegal. It may be detestable, it may be offensive, but it's not illegal.

You ever stop to think they can't rob you of knowledge? They can strip you and you've still got it.

Larry is like a son to me and we enjoy a most wonderful relationship, one with meaning, dignity, pride, understanding and purpose. But more importantly, one of mutual respect. Larry and I both pride ourselves on being men of our word and when we say we will be together for life it is not just convention but is said with feeling and commitment that comes from struggling together, growing together and being family.

I am the living attestation of the American dream. I am the extolment of this great nation.

There's only been three giant promoters in our lifetime. There's Michael Todd, P.T. Barnum, and yours truly.

I never cease to amaze myself. And I say this humbly

You must believe the unbelievable, snatch the possible out of the impossible.

I cant believe that having said what I said was interpreted as having been what I said when I said it, because I said it where I said it, when I said it, and who I said it to.

I can't believe what I said about myself. What I said in my own private conversations with myself to an ESPN producer are my business, and I had no business saying them to someone else.

Only in America could a Don King happen.

I wasn't getting invited to any board meetings. I had to kick the door down.

This is a setback. You get back up, you dust yourself off, and you get back in the game. We had a great singer named Ray Charles who wrote a song called 'Drowning in My Tears.' You can't afford to drown in your tears. You gotta go back, rededicate yourself, redouble your efforts, and persevere.

Only in America can you find so many angry people claiming to love their country, while hating almost anyone in it.

I'm a promoter of the people for the people and by the people and my magic lies in my people ties.

If a bullfrog had wings it wouldn't bump his behind every time he hopped.