1. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
2. “I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest.”
3. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
4. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
5. “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
6. “I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”
7. “Don’t count the days; make the days count.”
8. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
9. “The man who has no imagination has no wings.”
10. “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it—then I can achieve it.”
11. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
12. “I shook up the world! Me! Whee!”
13. “I’m young; I’m handsome; I’m fast. I can’t possibly be beat.”
14. “It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
15. “If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.”
16. “I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round.”
17. “To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
18. “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me.”
19. “It’s not the action you take, but the force within that separates champions.”
20. “Live every day as if it were your last because someday you’ll be right.”
21. “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them.”
22. “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning, And throwed thunder in jail.”
23. “I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.”
24. “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul.”
25. “My toughest fight was with my first wife.”
26. “I’m retired, but I ain’t through.”
27. “I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoeshine.”
28. “When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.”
29. “What keeps me going is goals.”
30. “Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.”
31. “Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.”
32. “I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.”
33. “Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.”
34. “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
35. “Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don’t be afraid to take that first step.”
36. “Rumble, young man, rumble.”
37. “What you’re thinking is what you’re becoming.”
38. “Age is whatever you think it is.”
39. “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses.”
40. “I am the lord of the ring.”
41. “If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
42. “I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting.”
43. “If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, then they can sure make something out of you.”
44. “My way of joking is to tell the truth. That’s the funniest joke in the world.”
45. “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
46. “I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
47. “I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
48. “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”
49. “I run on the road long before I dance under the lights.”
50. “I’ll show you how great I am.”
