I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.

I never thought of losing, but now that it' s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion.

I'm no leader; I'm a little humble follower.

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman's behind.

Joe Frazier got hit more than me - and he doesn't have Parkinson's.

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.

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.

To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, 'You're better than the Cassius of old.'

God tries you in certain, certain ways. Some people are rich, and they believe in God. They lose the money, things get hard, they get weak and quit going to church. Quit serving God like they did.

My trainer don't tell me nothing between rounds. I don't allow him to. I fight the fight. All I want to know is did I win the round. It's too late for advice.

Never put your money against Cassius Clay, for you will never have a lucky day.

I'm the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren't no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn't know about them.

Anywhere I go, there is always an incredible crowd that follows me. In Rome, as I land at the airport, even the men kiss me. I love Rome.

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

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.

A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so.

We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.