Top 62 Quotes & Sayings by Laila Ali

By being an athlete, I have uncovered so many other ways to express my beauty. Being a strong, fearless woman makes me feel beautiful. I love the way I look and feel when I am two hours into my training and my skin is glistening with sweat and my clothes are drenched because I have given it all I've got.

I think that if you do want to be a fighter, then you need to work harder than everybody else and make sure that you surround yourself with good people, especially if you're a woman. You've got to find a team that takes you seriously as a female fighter and is not going to rush you into the ring before you're ready.

I understand that the average person can't imagine damaging their looks in any way if it could be avoided. But I don't value my physical beauty to the point where I would not do something I truly enjoy because I'm afraid of potentially hurting something superficial.

I wasn't in shape at all before I decided to do boxing. I wasn't an athlete. Before boxing, I would go to the gym for a month and stop.

People who are fit are the same as anyone else. The only difference is their level of commitment. If looking good and being fit was easy, everyone would do it! Most people don't want to put in the work or make the sacrifices needed in order to be fit.

I'm Muhammad Ali's daughter, but my father and I are very different in that area. I don't necessarily try to put on a show. That's what my father's thing was, and he was great at it. Everything I say is because I feel it, and it comes out of my mouth. It's not scripted.

Everybody wants recognition, but we can't all get it.

I saw women's boxing on television for the first time when I was 18, and that's when I wanted to do it. So, it didn't come from me watching my father. I didn't know the sport existed; therefore, I wasn't really interested in it until I saw it.

I was never offended that people underestimated me because of my appearance or that they thought I was pretty and discouraged me from fighting because they didn't want me to risk hurting my looks.

I'm private in the sense that I like my personal space and only want people in the parts of my business that I choose to share. Anything I feel is too personal to share publicly, I keep to myself.

I'm a professional world champion. Of course if you're a world champion, you're working harder than everybody else. You're making the commitment, and you're making the sacrifices. If it were easy, everybody would be able to do it. Everybody would be able to be world champion, but everybody can't be. Everybody doesn't have it in them.

Anyone who's seen me before knows that when it's fight time, I don't have much to say.

Running is my time for myself. I'm like, 'I'm going for a run!' and my husband knows I'm out of there.

I'm not one of those women who's like pro women. I'm an individual, and I'm in an individual sport. So I see everyone as individuals, not as male or female.

I've had people in the family, male and female, impacted by heart disease. But people can prevent it.

I have to get a workout in in the morning. Once my day starts, I'll have the best intentions, and it still won't happen: one of the kids needs to be picked up somewhere, I have to hop on a conference call, or I'm just tired. So I get it done in the A.M.

I love engaging in conversation with other moms because we can relate to one another, and we swap valuable insight and information.

My dad is an excellent grandfather. He loves kids. He loves to kiss them to death.

I don't play video games. My husband does. He plays sometimes the football, and every once in a while when he gets bored, he'll do a little boxing in there. He gets into the football. You can trade players, and he keeps up with the whole aspect of the game, not just the game. He's a fanatic.

I don't really try to tell people whether they should fight. It's definitely not for everybody.

I never intended to box forever, and always planned to move on to do other things.

Authenticity is very important - be true to one's self.

I think that the greatest lesson I learned from my father is just having compassion towards people.

We shared our father with the world.

I never ran with my dad. He was old-school. He had a whole different idea of training. He ran in steel-toed boots! But, of course, he's proud of me and proud of the boxer that I became.

While I was boxing professionally, I never thought about my looks. The furthest thing from my mind was 'messing up my pretty face' when I was on my way to the ring to meet my opponent. Yet, people I'd meet along the way would always ask me if I was worried about my looks. Then they would go on to say that I was 'too pretty to box.'

All fighters run. The constant motion prepares you for being in the ring. And running strengthens your legs. Punching power comes from your lower body.

My dad is a comedian, entertainer, you know. He always likes to make people laugh. With me, it just depends on what mood I'm in. You get what you get.

People like to see me fight. A name can only take you so far. There are only a few fighters out of the thousands of boxers out there that have name recognition. I'm definitely not upset by that.

My father loves people. No matter what their race, no matter what their position in life, he treated everyone with kindness and love and respect. And that was instilled in me just by watching him.

I like to play by my own rules.

I'm not a team sports person type person, so I probably would have been good at tennis, because I like tennis. But my parents really didn't push me. I think if my parents would have guided me and stay committed, I could have played any sport I wanted to, but I never did.

My dad lived by example. I lived by watching him. I watched all the great things he did and said. I try to walk that talk for my children.

Pregnancy isn't 'I can eat whatever I want,' because you have to remember you're going to be stuck with a lot of that weight afterwards that you need to try to get off.

I have cravings all the time, even when I'm not pregnant.

My kids know the importance of being active - and that's why teaming up with the USTA was such an organic fit for me. They are making strives to get families outside - and using tennis as a way to get kids to stay active.

If you knew you could change your lifestyle and diet and avoid heart disease and other things, you should do it.

I do my best to work out 5 days a week. There are times when I can only get in 3 days a week because I am traveling or just need rest due to a hectic schedule. But working out is always a priority, and if I fall off due to my schedule, it is not long before I get back on track.

I don't like crazy names. I don't like them. I don't think it makes any sense. You have to think about the child and, as they get older, what they have to deal with. A lot of people do things as a fad, and they want to get some attention, but it's like, this is your child.

Focus on being balanced - success is balance.

I want to encourage women to take control of their health.

Since I was a child, my father was sick. I've always known him to be that way. That's why I'm proud of him - he has a disease he's obviously struggling with, but he's not letting it stop him from doing what he wants to do.

You have to fight for your health and stay on top of it. Our bodies are meant to be healthy.

'All in With Laila Ali' is educational, inspirational, compelling programming profiling individuals that have reached for the sky, pushed themselves to the limit and did things that you would think were impossible.

I am thrilled and honored to have a seat at the table for meaningful conversation with so many accomplished women in the sports world.

I'm inspired on a daily basis by my personal goals. I make it a habit to write down what it is that I want to accomplish. And I check that list. I keep myself accountable. My kids inspire me, of course. My ambition inspires me. I want to win at everything that I do in life. I understand that it takes hard work to reach my goals and I'm prepared to do it. My confidence comes from preparation. So I spend a lot of my time preparing.

Thinking about the women that you know: your friends, sisters, mothers, we know that we are kind of stereotyped. You like sports, you're a tomboy. There are all of these labels ,which is natural for us as a society to do, but it's just really about reminding women of the power that we have inside of us and that you can do anything you put your mind to. You don't want to get stuck. You don't want to get stuck in your own mind.

Sometimes if you don't physically attempt something, you don't realize how sick to your stomach or how hard it is.

Everyone wouldn't just accept that I wanted to be a fighter - because I wasn't someone that they envisioned could or would be a fighter.

For me, I like to imagine being successful. I like to imagine the end, which is success. I envision it, where I can actually see it happening. Going into the ring, seeing the fight happen, seeing me winning that belt, seeing me back in my dressing room celebrating with a slice of cake, which I always had. And the same with meetings. I do prepare though; that confidence comes from preparation, because that fear is in the back of your head of not doing well, of not saying the right thing or having the right information. That's where the preparation comes in for me.

There's so many women that need to be inspired, encouraged to go after their dreams, their goals, their aspirations. Because we all have that champion within us. It really is about your mindset and having the tools that you need, surrounding yourself with the right people, people who have been able to achieve some of the things that you want to achieve.

Maybe if I completely shaved my head and get the frost out of my moustache, maybe I could get one of those serious acting jobs.

Sometimes your worst hits in life wind up being your best advantage. If only you could believe that when you're getting hit.

If you're having a bad day the main thing on the mental side is realizing that I'm having a bad day and thinking about why and then just kind of re-prioritizing and saying, "I'm going to let myself have this bad day, but tomorrow I'm going to get back on track." That's pretty much it. We all have them. You do have to let yourself have them and then go within and figure out why you're having it and prevent it from happening again.

I was one of those people who wasn't getting a lot of milk, so I had to pump forever to just get two ounces of milk. But, you know, I wasn't going to give up or stop.

The wrestling, even though I would only wrestle for 15 or 20 or 30 minutes at a time, and it would look like that was the only time I was in it, was really a 24-hour job. Keeping yourself alive, reinventing yourself, staying physically in shape, the traveling, all the other commitments with being a wrestler, it was a crossover situation where it became sports entertainment and you actually became a media star, so it was very demanding.

If you're passionate about something, you believe in it, then you have to be consistent. And you have to put in the hard work that it takes to be successful.

My dad is my dad. I love him, and I realize that he's as famous as he is. Of course, I don't look at him like everybody else does. Because I know his little faults, I know his weaknesses. Nobody's perfect. But he's my dad. Just like your dad is to you.

When I entered the sport of boxing I wanted to be one of the best and be undefeated. And I was able to attain that, not just one championship title, but four.

If I'm not prepared, I don't feel confident. It's something that you can have control of. You deserve what it is you're going after as long as you've done the work that needs to be done to prepare for it. You can't just have your hand out!