50 Greatest Muhammad Ali Quotes About Standing Up For What’s Right
Find greatness in the midst of adversity with the best quotes by Muhammad Ali.
The late Muhammad Ali is a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, and the collection of the best Muhammad Ali quotes below prove just how much of an impact he made on the world.
Ali was most notably known for “floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee” in the boxing ring, originally taking up the sport at just 12 years-old.
Ali’s birth name was actually Cassius Clay Jr., but once he converted to Islam, he chose to be referred to as Muhammad Ali, refusing to go by his birth name because he believed it was his “slave name”. According an article published in The Washington Post in 2018, Ali was “the great-great-great grandson of Archer Alexander,” – a slave who escaped from and fed information to the Union Army during the Civil War, eventually becoming the model for the Emancipation Memorial, in Lincoln Park.
Even still, Muhammad Ali was a free man and did not want to carry a name that had nothing to do with his black roots or new faith. He wanted a name to reflect his newfound freedom.
Ali was not just an athlete, he was a philanthropist. In 2005 Ali was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Former U.S. President George Bush, who called him “a man of peace.”
He supported the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, and other non-profit organizations. Ali traveled to places like Mexico and Morocco to help the less fortunate.
In addition to his philanthropy, Ali was passionate about ending discrimination the black and Muslim community faced. Growing up in the South, Muhammad Ali had to overcome a great deal of racism and oppression.
Being a minority did not stop Ali from exercising his right to practice his religion. Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam War because of his religion and was arrested, wasn’t allowed to box, and was stripped of his title because he was “convicted of draft evasion”. Not to be discouraged, Ali from appealed this decision, and three years later the New York Supreme Court overturned the conviction and allowed him to box again.
Through all the hardships during his lifetime, Ali’s confidence did not waver. He did not let the oppression and discrimination keep him from …