In Florida I was illiterate, Boxing Authority didn't want me, then they had a special psychiatrist to come to Kentucky, they checked and they didn't want me. But as soon as my name was Mohammed Ali, as soon as I announced I was a Muslim, then all of a sudden I became smart.

Get up and say Elijah Muhammad is wrong when he says white are the devil? They have to prove they are not the devil.

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.

I'm not going to be that kind of a fighter. I'm going to dance and be pretty. I'm just going to win on points.And if I hurt my man I'm going to let him go and I'm not going to kill him just because somebody's watching.

We have one life / It soon will be past / What we do for God / Is all that will last.

I've never let anyone talk me into not believing in myself

Champions have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.