Muhammad Ali

1942–2016 · World heavyweight champion, activist and humanitarian

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay, 1942–2016) was a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion, a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, and a global humanitarian whose later years centered on charitable giving. He embraced — and helped popularize — the maxim that service is the ‘rent’ we owe for our place on Earth, and his official foundation lists it among his sayings. But the line was already decades old when he used it: he adopted a floating proverb rather than authoring it.

Traced to source

4 quotes we’ve traced to Muhammad Ali

“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was”

Attributed

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter”

Disputed

“It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe”

Disputed

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth”

Disputed

Not actually Muhammad Ali

Often misattributed to Muhammad Ali

Famous lines widely pinned on Muhammad Ali that we’ve traced to someone else.

“If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it”

actually Jesse Jackson

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing”

actually Aimee Lehto Schewe

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