1. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see. Now you see me, now you don’t. George thinks he will, but I know he won’t.”
2. “When you want to talk about who made me, you talk to me. Who made me, is me.”
3. “I have never heard anything that affected me like those words; ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World.’”
4. “I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”
5. “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”
6. “Braggin’ is when a person says something and can’t do it. I do what I say.”
7. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
Featured in: tomorrow is never promised quotes, quotes on determination
8. “It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
9. “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do you no harm.”
10. “If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it–then I can achieve it.”
11. “Truly great people in history never wanted to be great for themselves. All they wanted was the chance to do good for others and be close to God.”
12. “When it comes to love, compassion, and other feelings of the heart, I am rich.”
13. “I shook up the world. Me!”
14. “If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize.”
15. “I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
16. “My way of joking is to tell the truth. That’s the funniest joke in the world.”
17. “Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
18. “I’ve wrestled with alligators. I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning. And throw thunder in jail.”
19. “Think well of all, be patient with all, and try to find the good in all.”
20. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.”
21. “Life is so, so short. Bible says it’s like a vapor.”
22. “To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
23. “Too many easy victories can ruin a fighter just as much as a long line of defeats.”
24. “Recognize how every moment of our journey is an important part of the growth of our soul.”
25. “I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.”
26. “I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
27. “I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.”
28. “A man who has no imagination has no wings.”
29. “I’m young; I’m handsome; I’m fast. I can’t possibly be beat.”
30. “I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.”
31. “I know no fighter can survive the loss if he feels sorry for himself when he’s defeated.”
32. “Put yourself out on a limb, like me!”
33. “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
34. “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
35. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
36. “Each time I thought I had achieved my ‘life’s purpose,’ I discovered it was only another step in my journey.”
37. “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.”
38. “Give up what appears to be doubtful for what is certain. Truth brings peace of mind, and deception doubt.”
39. “I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.”
40. “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
41. “My style, my stamina, my system were molded down in the basement of a church in East End.”
42. “The thing that matters is how you lose. I’m not crying. My friends should not cry.”
43. “It’s a lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself.”
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44. “It’s funny, but those who hate me the most sometimes inspire me the most.”
45. “We spend more time learning how to make a living than we do learning how to make a life.”
46. “I don’t trust anyone who’s nice to me but rude to a waiter, because they would treat me the same if I were in that position.”
47. “Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.”
48. “If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
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49. “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.”
50. “I learn to put my head within hitting range, force my opponent to throw blows, then learn back and away.”
51. “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.”
52. “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.”
53. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
54. “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.”
55. “Live every day as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”
56. “I love children. I can never pass them by without saying something to them. They make you want to start life all over again.”
57. “The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.”
58. “There are no pleasures in a fight, but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.”
59. “Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.”
60. “When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.”
61. “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.”
62. “Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”
63. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
64. “Friendship is a priceless gift that cannot be bought nor sold, but its value is far greater than a mountain made of gold.”
65. “If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you—until you get your revenge.”
66. “I had always been the one who picked up all the stragglers and stray followers.”
67. “What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.”
68. “I had always come home like the victorious hunter bringing back big game from the jungle.”
69. “My wealth is in my knowledge of self, love, and spirituality.”
70. “I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.”
71. “I’m young, handsome, fast, pretty, and can’t possibly be beat!”
72. “I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.”
