Regarding the greatest sports quotes ever, the best Muhammad Ali quotes can not be ignored. There is hardly any other sports figure in the 20th century that comes close to the fame that Muhammad Ali gathered.
He was more than a sports figure – an inspiration to millions in America and worldwide. In the ring, there was no one who could equal his feat of being the three-time heavyweight champion. He won many awards and titles that no one else could match him.
Here are some of the most inspirational Muhammad Ali quotes and sayings that can renew your motivation and make you feel greater, too.
Funny Muhammad Ali Quotes
I wrestled with an alligator; I tussled with a whale, I handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail, I’m bad man… Last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick.
(Before the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” bout with George Foreman in 1974)
Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’
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.
Inspirational Quotes from Muhammad Ali
We can’t be brave without fear.
Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion.
Others may know pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.
Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.
I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.
I’m a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I’m no cheek-turner. I got no respect for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.
I’ve never let anyone talk me into not believing in myself.
One person with knowledge of his life’s purpose is more powerful than ten thousand working without that knowledge. It
I’m not the greatest. I’m the double greatest.
Motivational Muhammad Ali Quotes
Don’t count the days. Make the days count.
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.
Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it–then I can achieve it.
If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize.
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. Me.
All through my life, I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.
What keeps me going is goals.
Live every day as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.
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.
Muhammad Ali Training Sayings
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.
It’s not bragging if you can back it up.
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. (And) Impossible is nothing.
I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.
Note: Some of the best Muhammad Ali quotes came from interviews conducted by sports announcing legend, Howard Cosell.
Champion Quotations By Muhammad Ali
I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’
To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.
Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.
Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. –
If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you. –
I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was – I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.
It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.
There are no pleasures in a fight, but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.
No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker room.
I’m so mean I make medicine sick.
Check out a site devoted to The Greatest: Muhammad Ali
Best Muhammad Ali Quotes
The man who has no imagination has no wings.
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
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.
Wisdom is knowing when you can’t be wise.
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.
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.
The Greatest Quotations
A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.
We spend more time learning how to make a living than we do learning to make a life.
Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.
I got speed and endurance. You’d better increase your insurance.
Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all.
Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
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.
You lose nothing when fighting for a cause… In my mind, the losers are those who don’t have a cause they care about.
Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.
Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.
Float Like a Butterfly Sting Like a Bee quote
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can’t hit, what his eyes can’t see. (Perhaps the most famous Muhammad Ali quotes.)
This is considered as Muhammad Ali’s most famous quote. It was in 1964 when he was 22 that he said it before entering the ring to face the reigning heavyweight champion, Sonny Liston. While the general perception was that Liston was too much for the young Cassius Clay (Ali’s name at the time), the latter’s confidence became apparent from these words. And he went on to beat the champion by technical knockout.
Ali Poetry
I’ve wrestled with alligators.
I’ve tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning.
And throw’d thunder in jail.
There live a great man named Joe
who was belittled by a loudmouth foe.
While his rival would taunt and tease
Joe silently bore the stings.
And then fought like gladiator in the ring.
It’s just a job.
Grass grows,
birds fly,
waves pound the sand.
I beat people up.
He took a few cups of love.
He took one tablespoon of patience,
One teaspoon of generosity,
One pint of kindness.
He took one quart of laughter,
One pinch of concern.
And then, he mixed willingness with happiness.
He added lots of faith,
And he stirred it up well.
Then he spread it over a span of a lifetime,
And he served it to each and every deserving person he met.
My face is so pretty; you don’t see a scar,
Which proves I’m the king of the ring by far.
This is the legend of,
The greatest fighter that ever will be.
He talks a great deal and brags, indeed.
Of a powerful punch and blinding speed.
So don’t bet against me, I’m a man of my word.
He is the greatest. Yes.
I am the man this poem’s about,
I’ll be champ of the world, there isn’t a doubt.
Here I predict Mr. Liston’s dismemberment,
I’ll hit him so hard; he’ll wonder where October and November went.
Anti-War Quote
You my opposer when I want equality. You won’t even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won’t even stand up for me here at home.
Regarding the Vietnam War and conscription (1967) Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over.
This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here.
I hope you enjoyed this phenomenal boxer’s quotes and insights.
By Mike O’Halloran
Founder and Editor, Sports Feel Good Stories
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