I say get an education. Become an electrician, a mechanic, a doctor, a lawyer, anything but a fighter. In this trade, it's the managers that make the money and last the longest.

If you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.

When I heard the truth about my name was not Cassius Clay, like I knew a black man in America named John Hawkins. Now, you know who John Hawkins was.He was a slave trader from England. But the white people of that time, if one had five slaves and his name was Jones, they would be called Jones' property. [...] Now that I'm free, now that I'm no longer a slave, then I want a name of my ancestors.

My definition of evil is unfriendliness.

I'm not trying to get power over white. I'm involved in a freedom struggle. Not a power struggle.

If Ali says a mosquito can pull a plow, don't ask how. Hitch him up.

So I didn't pass. It was the army's decision that they didn't want me to go into the service. They're the boss. I don't want to say no whole lot about it.