# Muhammad Ali's greatest quotes

From 'Float like a butterfly' and 'I am the greatest' to refusing the Vietnam draft and taunting Foreman and Frazier: Muhammad Ali's most famous lines, with where and when he said them.

- 89 votes · 13 items
- Jul 16, 2020 · K. Cruz
- https://even.best/en/l/4644/muhammad-ali-s-greatest-quotes

## Top 13

1. **Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee – his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — His signature rhyme, written with his cornerman Drew Bundini Brown in 1964.
2. **The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.** (8 · ▲8 ▼0) — Playboy interview, November 1975.
3. **I am the greatest! I'm the greatest thing that ever lived.** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — After beating Sonny Liston for the world title, February 1964.
4. **It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Collected by BBC Sport, 2007.
5. **My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — On refusing the Vietnam draft, 1967.
6. **If you were surprised when Nixon resigned, just watch what happens when I whup Foreman's behind!** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Before the Rumble in the Jungle, Kinshasa, October 1974.
7. **I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right.** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — After losing to Ken Norton, March 1973.
8. **Allah is the Greatest. I'm just the greatest boxer.** (3 · ▲6 ▼3) — Interview with the magazine Sound Vision.
9. **I hated every minute of it. But I said to myself, 'Suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion.'** (3 · ▲5 ▼2) — On training, quoted in Newsweek, 1978.
10. **I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Collected by BBC Sport on his 65th birthday, 2007.
11. **I'm retiring because there are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — On retiring from boxing.
12. **Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.** (1 · ▲4 ▼3) — On his great rival, collected by BBC Sport.
13. **If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.** (-2 · ▲1 ▼3) — Misattributed: a variation on Jesse Jackson and Napoleon Hill, not an Ali original.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.