I love boxing and it did a lot for me. But sometimes it made me think how savage human beings could be to each other. That wasn't the kind of boxer I wanted to be. My strategy was to be as scientific as I could when I fought. I didn't want to be seriously hurt, and I didn't want to do that to anybody else either.

I can't believe some of the things I did.Can't believe it. Sayin' I was the greatest and the beautifulist and I was gonna whup this guy and that guy, sayin' I'm pretty, I can't be beat.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand 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?

You don't want no pie in the sky when you die, You want something here on the ground while you're still around.

Now I had won the gold medal. But it didn't mean anything, because I didn't have the right color skin.

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

What counts in the ring is what you can do after you're exhausted. The same is true of life.