What is true anywhere is true everywhere.

That what we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Free should the scholar be, — free and brave… Brave; for fear is a thing, which a scholar by his very function puts behind him. Fear always springs from ignorance… The world is his, who can see through its pretension.

Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.

I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.

Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.

Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.

It isn't tIt isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.he mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'

We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.

I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do - they all contain truths.

I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

The word 'Islam' means 'peace.' The word 'Muslim' means 'one who surrenders to God.' But the press makes us seem like haters.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

I shook up the world, I shook up the world.

It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.

The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means to an education.

In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

The boy wishes to learn to skate, to coast, to catch a fish in the brook, to hit a mark with a snowball or a stone; and a boy a little older is just as well pleased to teach him these sciences.

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, the worst. What is the right use? What is the end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.

Colleges… can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame.

There is properly no history; only biography.

Children are all foreigners.

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.

It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.

Life is so, so short. Bible says it's like a vapor.

I would say things like 'I am the greatest! I'm pretty! If you talk jive, you'll drop in five! I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! I'm pretty!' When white people heard me talking like this, some said, 'That black man talks too much. He's bragging.'

I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.

Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can't talk. The man can't fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he's gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.

The Nation of Islam's main focus was teaching black pride and self-awareness. Why should we keep trying to force ourselves into white restaurants and schools when white people didn't want us? Why not clean up our own neighborhoods and schools instead of trying to move out of them and into white people's neighborhoods?