"I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own."

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

"There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win."

"Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change."

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

"Old age is just a record of one's whole life."

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."

"I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world."

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

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

"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."

"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."

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

"The man who has no imagination has no wings."

"At home I am a nice guy: but I don't want the world to know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far."

"When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace."

"It's not bragging if you can back it up."

"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."

"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."

"There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."

"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."

"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."

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

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

"I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest."

"My way of joking is to tell the truth. That's the funniest joke in the world."

"I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free."

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

"I figure I'll be champ for about ten years and then I'll let my brother take over - like the Kennedys down in Washington."

"To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich."

"What keeps me going is goals."

"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."

"If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you."

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

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

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