Quote collection
544 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
"It's hard to beat a guy when he's got his mind made up that he's going to win."
"The man who has no imagination has no wings."
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer."
"It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself."
"I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own."
"You lose nothing when fighting for a cause ... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about."
"Whatever the challenge was, however unattainable the goal may have seemed, I never let anyone talk me out of believing in myself."
"True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values."
"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."
"There comes a time in every person's life when he has to choose the course his life will take."
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
"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."
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."
"It's not bragging if you can back it up."
"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."
"God gave me this illness to remind me that I'm not Number One; He is."
"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."
"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."
"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."