ALI'S

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.

If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologise.

I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. I can't possibly be beat.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

I'm retiring because there are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.

Last night I had a dream, When I got to Africa, I had one hell of a rumble. I had to beat Tarzan's behind first, For claiming to be King of the Jungle. For this fight, I've wrestled with alligators, I've tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning And throw thunder in jail. You know I'm bad. just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean, I make medicine sick. I'm so fast, man, I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet. When George Foreman meets me, He'll pay his debt. I can drown the drink of water, and kill a dead tree. Wait till you see Muhammad Ali.

Ain't no reason for me to kill nobody in the ring, unless they deserve it.

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. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. ... Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife.

It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round

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.

Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Vietcong ever called me nigger.