I didn't want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, 'Why did you do that?' This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.
The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain't ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?
I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own.
I'm the greatest thing that ever lived! I'm the king of the world! I'm a bad man. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived.
It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.
It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.
I'll beat him so bad he'll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
I should be a postage stamp, because that's the only way I'll ever get licked. I'm beautiful. I'm fast. I'm so mean I make medicine sick. I can't possibly be beat.
To make America the greatest is my goal, so I beat the Russian and I beat the Pole. And for the U.S.A. won the medal of gold. The Greeks said, 'You're better than the Cassius of old.'
People don't realize what they had till it's gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing.
I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
I would say things like 'I am the greatest! I'm pretty! If you talk jive, you'll drop in five! I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! I'm pretty!' When white people heard me talking like this, some said, 'That black man talks too much. He's bragging.'
I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.
Superman don't need no seat belt.
I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.
Life is so, so short. Bible says it's like a vapor.
All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them.