Muhammad Ali's greatest quotes
The top 3 according to 89 votes from people: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee – his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. · The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. · I am the greatest! I'm the greatest thing that ever lived.. (Updated Jul 16, 2020.)
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.
Top 13
-
1
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee – his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
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.
Playboy interview, November 1975.
-
3
I am the greatest! I'm the greatest thing that ever lived.
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.
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.
On refusing the Vietnam draft, 1967.
-
6
If you were surprised when Nixon resigned, just watch what happens when I whup Foreman's behind!
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.
After losing to Ken Norton, March 1973.
-
8
Allah is the Greatest. I'm just the greatest boxer.
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.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Is something missing?
Comments (1)
The Frazier jokes aged badly tbh, Ali himself apologised for a lot of that later. The Vietnam quote though, still gives me chills.