Quotes about Muhammad Ali

It was unbelievable, the courage he had. He wasn't just a championship athlete. He was a champion who fought for his people.... The man used his athletic ability as a platform to project himself right up there with world leaders ... going after things that very few people have the courage to go after. From the standpoint of his ability to perform and his ability to be involved with the world, Ali was the most important sports figure in history.

He belonged to everyone. That means his impact recognizes no continent, no language, no color, no ocean. It belongs to us all, just as Muhammad Ali belongs to us all.

Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period.

Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it.

He became arguably the most famous person on the planet, known as a supreme athlete, an uncanny blend of power, improvisation, and velocity; a master of rhyming prediction and derision; an exemplar and symbol of racial pride; a fighter, a draft resister, an acolyte, a preacher, a separatist, an integrationist, a comedian, an actor, a dancer, a butterfly, a bee, a figure of immense courage.

He was a champion in the ring, but, more than that, a hero beyond the ring. When champions win, people carry them off the field on their shoulders. When heroes win, people ride on their shoulders. We rode on Muhammad Ali's shoulders.

If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest. In every way, he was the bravest, the kindest, and the most excellent of men.

For Ali to compose a few words of real poetry would be equal to an intellectual throwing a good punch.