Why waltz with a guy for 10 rounds if you can knock him out in one?

I'd be conceited if I said I could, but I'd be lying if I said I couldn't.

To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body. When you can't make that commitment, they don't call you a champion anymore.

Roland La Starza was tough, but Ezzard Charles was the toughest man I ever fought. I learned what pain was all about when I fought him.

I was on my face. I heard the count from one to 10. I kept telling myself that I had to get up, but I couldn't move. I couldn't make myself move. It was the strangest feeling.

Liston is like most big bullies, if you can stay away and make him miss for a few rounds he'll get frustrated. Once you strip away that feeling of invincibility, he can be had.

What could be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're the heavyweight champion of the world?

That was a f****g dumb question. If I didn't think I was gonna win, why the hell would I be fighting?!

In the ring, I never really knew fear.

The greatness of Marciano in the ring was defined by the way he prepared for a fight, his ability to punch and take a punch.

I believe, in my prime, I could have fought with anybody alive.

I think one of the best words in the English language is 'compassion.' I think it holds everything. It holds love, it holds care... and if everybody just did something. We all make a difference.

Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.

[To lose twenty pounds] is not even about how much I lose and how fast, it's so much about being healthy.

An intention is a quality of consciousness that you bring to an action.

How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?

Democrats believe we must create jobs, not protect the special interests; build the economy from the middle out, not the top down.

my feet will want to walk to where you are sleeping but I shall go on living.

Then the song of a whitethroat, pure and ethereal, with the dreamy quality of remembered joy.

Because reputation lags achievement, we should expect people to reach the zenith of their reputation well past the zenith of their productive output

The man is mechanically turned, and made for getting. . . . It was verily prettily said that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom Heaven is pleased to bestow it.