“Just look at the great Nelson Mandela. He came out of prison and saved his entire country. Some of the best people in the world have spent time in prison.”

If you want it, leave your excuses behind and come and get it.

It embarrasses me to think of all those years I was buying silk suits and alligator shoes that were hurting my feet; cars that I just parked, and the dust would just build up on them.

Many people fail not so much because of their mistakes; they fail because they are afraid to try.

I know from experience that you should never give up on yourself or others, no matter what.

They say I don’t fight guys unless they’re on a respirator. That’s incorrect. They have to be at least 3 days off a respirator.

I’m working for the Lord, and even though the Lord’s pay isn’t very high, his retirement program is.

There ain’t nothing like being in the corner, and the trainer is whispering in your ear and another guy is putting in your mouthpiece. Five seconds to go, the boom! The bell. It’s more exciting than looking down a cliff.

To be successful in life, you must get in the habit of turning negatives into positives.

I do believe he’s the greatest, but forget about boxing – give that to Joe Louis, or somebody – I believe he’s one of the greatest men I’ve ever met.

As bad as your situation may be, someone else always has it worse than you.

My mother was watching on television and she doesn’t want me to hurt anyone.

If you can look in your mother’s eyes and she’s proud of you, then you’re a champion.

All I’ve ever tried to tell anyone is that I’m not a black man or a white man or anything else. All I’ve ever been was an American.

A boxer never sees the big one that hits him.

Anybody going into boxing already has brain damage.

People are hurt in love affairs and never recover, more than a boxing match.

Memmius would only be useless to him for a short time, but that he would remain useless to himself and the Republic forever.

When something has to be done, do it! In France we are full of good ideas, but we rarely put them into practice.

A nation is all the individuals of same blood, forming by their cohesion a natural related collective being with it s own organs and state which are social classes and the State and the same soul, which is nationality.

That’s what a DJ is at the end of the day – someone who leads where the music goes. The only thing that’s changed is that in America, people have woken up in the last few years and realized it.

I am raising my voice as a citizen of the country. I don?t want to enter politics.

Baseball has the largest library of law and love and custom and ritual, and therefore, in a nation that fundamentally believes it is a nation under law, well, baseball is America’s most privileged version of the level field.

Talking to Yogi Berra about baseball is like talking to Homer about the Gods.

Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.