65 Inspirational Muhammad Ali Quotes [2024]

•

Updated: January 20th, 2022

Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet, and philanthropist.

Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century. He was the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions. He is also known for his social message of black pride and black resistance to white domination and for refusing induction into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

We've put together an incredible collection of Muhammad Ali quotes to read.

Here they are:

65 Inspirational Muhammad Ali Quotes [2024]

List of Inspiring Muhammad Ali Quotes

“You don’t have to be in a boxing ring to be a great fighter. As long as you are true to yourself, you will succeed in your fight for that in which you believe.”

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

“We can’t be brave without fear.”

“What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.”

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”

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

“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.”

“Life is so, so short. Bible says it’s like a vapor.”

“I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.”

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

“Put yourself out on a limb, like me!”

“You lose nothing when fighting for a cause.”

“If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize.”

“Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.”

“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If not, pretend you are.”

“It’s funny, but those who hate me the most sometimes inspire me the most.”

“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.”

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth"

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

“Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all.”

“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.”

“I know I can learn to hit without getting hit.”

“Don’t count the days; make the days count.”

“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.”

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

“The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.”

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

“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.”

“No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker room.”

“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

“My principles are more important than the money or my title.”

“What keeps me going is goals.”

“When I won the Golden Gloves in 1960, that made me realize I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ.”

“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.”

“Too many easy victories can ruin a fighter just as much as a long line of defeats.”

“It’s in my blood to be around people while I was training.”

“People don’t realize what they had till it’s gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing.”

“The critics only made me work harder.”

“I’m not the greatest, I’m the double greatest.”

“Live every day as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”

“Superman don’t need no seat belt.”

“It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.”

“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 have never heard anything that affected me like those words: ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World.’”

“Wisdom is knowing when you can’t be wise.”

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

“I shook up the world. Me! Whee!”

“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 than the skill.”

“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.”

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

“I’ve wrestled with alligators. I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning. And throw thunder in jail.”

“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.”

“Put yourself out on a limb, sucka, like me!”

“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

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

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

“My wealth is in my knowledge of self, love, and spirituality.”

“When you want to talk about who made me, you talk to me. Who made me, is me.”

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

“Champions aren’t made in gyms.”

“It takes pride and tiger’s drive to build up the confidence, the ego the power to defeat an opponent in the ring.”

“Now you see me, now you don’t.”

“I don’t get hit. I’m the fastest thing on two feet, man!”

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

“You are as old as you think you are.”

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

See full profile