Top 591 Quotes & Sayings by Muhammad Ali - Page 3

We have one life / It soon will be past / What we do for God / Is all that will last.

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

When you're right, nobody remembers. When you're wrong, nobody forgets.

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

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.

The one without dreams is the one without wings.

If you look at the world the same way when you're 50 that you did when you were 20, then you wasted 30 years.

I am grateful for all my victories, but I am especially grateful for my losses, because they only made me work harder.

God will not place a burden on a man's shoulders knowing that he cannot carry it.

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

True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values.

What counts in the ring is what you can do after you're exhausted. The same is true of life.

Money and riches don't mean nothing to me. I don't care nothing about being no rich individual. I'm not living for glory or for fame; all this is doomed for destruction. You got it today, tomorrow it's gone. I got bigger things on my mind than that. I got Islam on my mind.

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

There are billions of people in the world, and every one of them is special. No one else in the world is like you.

My toughest opponent has always been me.

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?"

When you saw me in the boxing ring fighting, it wasn't just so I could beat my opponent. My fighting had a purpose. I had to be successful in order to get people to listen to the things I had to say.

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

The more we help others, the more we help ourselves

There's nothing wrong with getting knocked down, as long as you get right back up.

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.

What you are thinking is what you are becoming.

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 niggers 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.

It's hard to beat a guy when he's got his mind made up that he's going to win.

If we continue to think and live as if we belong only to different cultures and different religions, with separate missions and goals, we will always be in self-defeating competition with each other. Once we realize we are all members of humanity, we will want to compete in the spirit of love.

If I could meet anybody? The prophet Muhammad.

Rest but never quit. Even the sun has a sinking spell each evening. But it always rises the next morning. At sunrise, every soul is born again.

You lose nothing when fighting for a cause ... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about.

How could they say that my religion, Islam was a 'race hate' religion after all the plunder and enslavement and domination of my people by white Christians in the name of white supremacy?

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

Champions have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.

Tolerance and understanding won't 'trickle down' in our society any more than wealth does.

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

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.

I'm a Muslim. I've been a Muslim for 20 years. . . . You know me. I'm a boxer. I've been called the greatest. People recognize me for being a boxer and a man of truth. I wouldn't be here representing Islam if it were terrorist. . . . I think all people should know the truth, come to recognize the truth. Islam is peace.

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.

Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world.

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

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.

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

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.

We can't be brave without fear.

It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

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

The will must be stronger than the skill.

Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong.

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

It isn't the mountains that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.

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

You're not going to enjoy every minute of the journey, but the success you'll find at the end will make it all worth it.

No one starts out on top. You have to work your way up.

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

What you're thinking is what you're becoming.

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

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.

The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.… If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

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.

The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most

I'm a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I'm no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won't hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.