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"This guy is done. I'll stop him in one."
-- 12-year-old Cassius Clay dropping his first public rap, 1954
"Jooooeeee Frazier. Ain't he ugly? He's too ugly to be champion of the world. The Champ should be pretty, Like me."
-- Baiting Frazier before their epic first battle, 1971
Waiter: We don't serve Negroes.
Clay: Well, I don't eat 'em either!
-- The reigning Olympic gold medalist after being refused service at a Miami restaurant, 1961
"I am America. I am the past you won't recognize. But get used to me: black, confident, ****y. My name, not yours. My religion, not yours. My goal, my own. Get used to me."
-- The new heavyweight champ announcing his conversion to Islam, 1964
"They're all afraid of me because I speak the truth that can set men free."
-- Waiting to hear from the courts on his draft-evasion conviction, 1969
"Don King's body did four years in prison, but his hair got the chair."
-- Poking fun at boxing's most famous promoter, 1976
"It's just a job. Grass grows. Birds fly. Waves pound the sand. I beat people up."
-- Reflecting on his craft, 1977
"I won the title, became champion, powerful and strong. And then God tries you, fixes it so it's hard to talk, hard to walk. I'm blessed and thankful to God that I understand He's trying me. He gave me this illness to remind me that I'm not Number One. He is."
--Addressing his battle with Parkinson's disease, 1999