Black people in America will never be free so long as they're on the white man's land. We can't be free until we get our own land and our own country in North America. When we separate from America and take maybe ten states, then we'll be free.

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

You can't keep your mind on fighting when you're thinking about a woman. You can't keep your concentration. You feel like sleeping all the time.

You got black people in an all-white country and they don't know nothing about themselves.

Do you know why I’m the fastest heavyweight in the world? I’m the only heavyweight that trains underwater!

On my twelfth birthday, I got a new bicycle as a present from my folks, and I rode it to a fair that was being held at the Columbia Gymnasium, and when I come out, my bike was gone. I was so mad I was crying, and a policeman, Joe Martin, come up and I told him I was going to whip whoever took my bike. He said I ought to take some boxing lessons to learn how to whip the thief better, and I did. That's when I started fighting.

The man of least capacity is the one who shows himself incapable of self-correction.