There's nothing stressful about turning 50 except people reminding you about it.

I am grateful for all my victories, but I am especially grateful for my losses, because they only made me work harder.

I think we're all brothers - that's the truth. But the press gave us the name black Muslims to cut us off from the others.

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

I came back to Louisville after the Olympics with my shiny gold medal. Went into a luncheonette where black folks couldn't eat. Thought I'd put them on the spot. I sat down and asked for a meal. The Olympic champion wearing his gold medal. They said, "We don't serve niggers here." I said, "That's okay, I don't eat 'em." But they put me out in the street. So I went down to the river, the Ohio River, and threw my gold medal in it.

No black man wants a blue-eyed black child, and no white man wants a kinky-haired white child. Nature didn't mean it to be that way.

Enjoy your children, even when they don't act the way you want them to.