“Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.”

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.

We, too, need to be patient, especially when it comes to reaching new goals.

I am a winner each and every time I go into the ring.

Today the biggest decisions I make aren’t related to the heavyweight title. They are whether I visit McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, or Jack-in-the-Box.

I respect that you want to protect your niece. You know, I didn’t want my daughter to become a boxer. Neither did Mohammad. But Joe Frazier, on the other hand, he had his baby girl boxing in the crib.

I think its so good for boxing when a new guy or new blood as we call it, makes a big statement.

People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.

As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.

An appreciation of prose is learned, not instinctive. It is an acquired taste, like Scotch whisky.

Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.

There are two primary ways in which mans relates himself to the world that surround him: manipulation and appreciation .

Acceptance is appreciation, and the high value of appreciation is such that to appreciate appreciation seems to be the fundamental prerequisite for survival.

Neither the praise nor the blame is our own.

She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.