Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. to Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. and Odessa (Grady) Clay on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. Clay’s father worked painting billboards and signs and his mother worked as a domestic. Clay began boxing at the age of twelve, under the direction of Joe Martin. He began fighting in the amateur ranks. In the 1960 Olympic Games in
Following his ascension to champion, he famously revealed that he was a member of the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) and Malcolm X provided Clay with the name Cassius X, discarding his surname as a symbol of his ancestors' enslavement, as had been done by other Nation members. On
Ali converted from the Nation of Islam to Sect Sunni Islam in 1975. In a 2004 autobiography, written with daughter Hana Yasmeen Ali, Muhammad Ali attributes his conversion to the shift towards Sunni Islam made by W.D. Muhammad after he gained control of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father, Elijah Muhammad in 1975.
Nor did they approve of his personal behavior: the self-promotions ("I am the greatest!"), his affiliation with the Muslims and giving up his "slave name" for Muhammad Ali ("I don't have to be what you want me to be; I'm free to be what I want"), the poetry (his ability to compose rhymes on the run could very well qualify him as the first rapper) or the quips ("If Ali says a mosquito can pull a plow, don't ask how. Hitch him up!"). At the press conferences, the reporters were sullen. Ali would turn on them. "Why ain't you taking notice?" or "Why ain't you laughing?"
Here some quotes from him:
- Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
- Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.
- He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
- What keeps me going is goals.
- When you are as great as I am it is hard to be humble.
- Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.
- There are no pleasures in a fight but some of my fights have been a pleasure to win.
- The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.
- Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
- Prejudice comes from being in the dark; sunlight disinfects it.
- Old age is just a record of one's whole life.
- It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to· belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
- It's not bragging if you can back it up.
- It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
- I am
- We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.
- To be able to give away riches is mandatory if you wish to possess them. This is the only way that you will be truly rich.
- The man who has no imagination has no wings.
- Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
1 comment:
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