By Osagie Alonge
We join millions world over to wish Mohammed Ali a very happy 70th birthday.
The iconic boxer known for his bragadocio, as much as his skills, was an enigma in and out of the ring, winning many fights with his smooth talk, even before the first round.
We put together 70 of Ali’s memorable quotes…. Enjoy
1. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick.
2. There’s not a man alive who can whup me. I’m too fast. I’m too smart. I’m too pretty. I should be a postage stamp. That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.
3. 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.
4. I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.
5. If you dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologise.
6. There are two things that are hard to hit and see. That’s a spooky ghost and Muhammad Ali
7. One of these days, they’re liable to make the house I grew up in a national shrine.
8. Frazier is so ugly he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife.
9. Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.
10. I’ve seen George Foreman shadow boxing. And the shadow won.
11. It’s a divine fight. This Foreman – he represents Christianity, America, the flag. I can’t let him win. He represents pork chops.
12. I’ll beat him so bad, he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
13. Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.
14. You’re always talking about, Muhammad, you’re not the same man you were 10 years ago. Well, I asked your wife, and she told me you’re not the same man you was two years ago!
15. I’m the best. I just haven’t played yet.
16. A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
17. A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.
18. Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.
19. At home I am a nice guy: but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.
20. Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
21. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
22. Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.
23. Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.
24. Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.
25. He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
26. I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.
27. I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.
28. I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and peace.
29. I figure I’ll be champ for about ten years and then I’ll let my brother take over – like the Kennedys down in Washington.
30. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.
31. I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
32. I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin’ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.
33. I know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.
34. I never thought of losing, but now that it’ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.
35. I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.
36. I’ll beat him so bad he’ll need a shoehorn to put his hat on.
37. I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round.
38. 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.
39. I’m the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people far away in the villages didn’t know about them.
40. If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.
41. If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.
42. It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.
43. It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.
44. It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.
45. It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.
46. It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.
47. It’s not bragging if you can back it up.
48. It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
49. Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don’t let yourself believe it will happen to you.
50. My toughest fight was with my first wife.
51. My way of joking is to tell the truth. That’s the funniest joke in the world.
52. No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker room.
53. Old age is just a record of one’s whole life.
54. Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
55. Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths.
56. Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
57. Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
58. Superman don’t need no seat belt.
59. The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
60. The man who has no imagination has no wings.
61. The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
62. There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.
63. There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.
64. To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.
65. Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.
66. We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.
67. What keeps me going is goals.
68. When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.
69. Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
70. Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
'Quoting' Mohammed Ali At 70
