“If you can maintain that integrity in whatever you do, you can’t go wrong.”

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.

Improve relationships with others by assuming that they can hear everything you say about them.

By themselves, character and integrity do not accomplish anything. But their absence faults everything else. Here, therefore, is the one area where weakness is a disqualification by itself rather than a limitation on performance capacity and strength.

I don’t like the idea of something where you have to depend upon the integrity of the man and not the integrity of the institution.

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

I’m kind of a good girl – and I’m not. I’m a good girl because I really believe in love, integrity, and respect. I’m a bad girl because I like to tease. I know that I have sex appeal in my deck of cards. But I like to get people thinking. That’s what the stories in my music do.

Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.

Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody’s watching, and doing as you say you would do.

Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be. We do not need to fear anything. We are whole: our deepest happiness is intrinsic to the nature of our minds, and it is not damaged through uncertainty and change.