Muhammad Ali said so many thing to inspire greatness. Here are my top 25:
1. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
2. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
3. “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
4. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
5. “I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
6. “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”
7. “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.”
8. “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.”
9. “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
10. “If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
11. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
12. “Don’t count the days; make the days count.”
13. “If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it—then I can achieve it.”
14. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see.”
15. “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
16. “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”
17. “The man who has no imagination has no wings.”
18. “To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If not pretend you are.”
19. “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.”
20. “You lose nothing when fighting for a cause … In my mind the losers are those who don’t have a cause they care about.”
21. “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.”
22. “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
23. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
24. “If you even dream of beating me you better wake up and apologize.”
25. “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
Contributed by Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy.
