"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." "I am an astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I'm in a world of my own." "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." "When you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble." "It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up." "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 the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." "You can't hit what you can't see; I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!" After being rejected by the Vietnam draft the first time, because he failed the 'intelligence' portion, Casius said, "I never said I was the smartest, I said I was the greatest". "I won a gold medal representing the USA at the olympic games in 1960, but when I came home I still got treated like a nigger. There were restaurants I couldn't get served in. Some people kept calling me 'boy'." "Sonny Liston is too ugly to be world heavyweight champion!" On Henry Cooper, "If he talks some jive, I'll knock him out in round five." "I'm soooooooooooooooooo pretty!!!" I'm gonna float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, George can't hit what his eyes can't see, now you see me, now you don't, he thinks he will but I know he won't. "My toughest fight was my first wife."