"I haven't been home in 410 years. I'm going there to see what home looks like." (Africa)
"The funny thing I find is that everywhere I go they're crazy about soul music. I hear James Brown, the Jackson Five, and the Supremes over here in Europe....when these people come on, the whole world starts dancing. They all follow the American Negro. I didn't know that until I started travelling."
"I've punched and been punched since I was twelve, and it seems like every time I fight lately, something gets hurt."
"It's something that will go down in history, like the left hook." (Ali Shuffle)
"It was just a publicity stunt to start with, but I'm going to keep it in my act. It helped me get out of the corners."
"I'm the amateur light-heavyweight champion of the world, and I dont have a penny!"
"There's no place like home, especially when home is America."
"I'm so pretty I can hardly stand to look at myself!"
"I'm pretty as a girl."
"All races love the Beatles. I love the music. I used to train to their music."
"A fighters only weapons are his hands. If they go, he goes."
"They're expecting me to come back looking fat, looking bad. They think they've done me in. But I'm going to fool them."
"If anybody ever dreamed of knocking me down, he'd wake up and apologize."
"Now, a whole lot of people ain't going to like this, but I'm going to tell you the truth--you asked me. It's too many great old fighters to go listing them one by one. But ain't no need to. I think that Joe Louis, in his prime, could have whipped them all--I mean anyone you want me to name. And I would have beat Louis."
"Look, it ain't never been another fighter like me. Ain't never been nothing like me."
"I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."
"When I fight Liston, I'm going to have five of the prettiest girls in the world in my corner. I'll have one to take off my crown, one to handle my robe, another to spray the corners of the ring with purfume, one to give me a pat on the back, and another to comb my hair."
"I'm the unrevealed champion. I'm the only fighter who predicts the exact round in which my opponent will fall. I am the greatest."
"Did you ever see such a graceful man?"
"You stand a better chance in Vietnam with a BB gun then you do with me."
"There was a smell of death in that ring tonight."
"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them--a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger then the skill."
"People ask me how many children I have. I say one boy and seven mistakes."
"My name is Cassius Marcellus Clay. I'm the Golden Gloves champion of Louisville. I'm going to be heavyweight champion of the world."
"The only place they can take my title away from me is in the ring--and nobody can do it there either."
"Why should I drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Nergo people in Louisville are treated like dogs?"
"Have Madison Square Garden send,
All the judges ringside seats.
Let the judges in free,
Courtesy of me,
Muhammad Ali."
"I'd like to be a singer like Elvis Presley."
"I'm gonna talk and talk and talk, and all the world is gonna know my name."
"I love to be booed. They can boo me, yell at me, and throw peanuts at me as long as they pay to get in."
"A wise man can act a fool, but a fool cannot act as a wise man."
"God gave me this physical impairment (Parkinson's Disease) to remind me that I am not the greatest. He is."
"I dont hate. Not then; not now. What I was doing was like a doctor giving someone a needle and hurting them a little to kill an infection. In the end it helps."
"Sometimes I laugh at what I do harder then anyone else."
"I didn't say I am the smartest. I said I am the greatest."
Ali: "Superman don't need no seatbelt!"
Stewardess: "Superman don't need no airplane either."
"I am king of the world!"
"Dundee told me: "Go out and hit him! Go out and hit him!" So I said: "You go out and hit him. I'm tired."
"Service to others is the rent I pay for my room here on Earth."
"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."
"I'm the only man in history who becomes famous under two names."
"Some people can eat and not gain weight. I just look at food and my belly gets bigger."
"Moore has been living on the fat of the land,
Now its time for his pension plan.
Don't block the aisle and don't block the door,
You all may go home after round four."
"They say Liston was great, but he must fall for me in eight."
"Liston is going to be the first Negro to go into space--I'm going to put him there."
"Liston will be so scared that he'll leave half his fight in the dressing room. He would rather run through Hell in a gasoline sport coat then fight me again."
"What's this about Joe Louis beating me? Slow-moving shuffling Joe Louis beat me? He may hit hard, but that don't mean nothing if you can't find nothing to hit."
"You've got to give him credit. He put up a fight for one and a half rounds."
"Your the champ and I'm beating you up."
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