Muhammad Ali: In His Own Words

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see."

Above: Cassius Clay, 22, newly crowned heavyweight boxing champion, is shown at the age of 12. (1954)

"If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it."

Above: Young heavyweight fighter Cassius Clay is seen with his trainer Angelo Dundee at City Parks Gym in New York. February 8, 1962.

"Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong."

Above: Muhammad Ali at the wheel. April 2, 1963.

"Don't count the days, make the days count."

Above: Cassius Clay's handlers hold him back as he reacts after he is announced the new heavyweight champion of the world on a seventh round technical knockout against Sonny Liston at Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Florida. February 25, 1964.

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."

Above: Muhammad Ali is held back by referee Joe Walcott, left, after Ali knocked out challenger Sonny Liston in the first round of their title fight in Lewiston, Maine. May 25, 1965.

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion'."

Above: World heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay runs alongside a horse-drawn carriage, in Queen's Mews, Knightsbridge, London. May 11, 1966.

"The man with no imagination has no wings."

Above: The Beatles take a fake blow from Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, while visiting the heavyweight contender at his training camp in Miami Beach.

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

Above: Muhammad Ali, in a jovial mood as his March 8 bout with Joe Frazier draws near, is seen speaking on the phone and wearing a king's crown in Miami Beach. March 6, 1971.

"What you're thinking is what you're becoming."

Above: Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is being welcomed by a cheering crowd in Kinshasa, Zaire. September 28, 1974.

"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 the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."

Above: Boxer Muhammad Ali doing his roadwork past St. Basil's and Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow in June 1978.

"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."

Above: Heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali shown with wife, Veronica in Los Angeles at Los Angeles Lakers Basketball game. September 6, 1979.

"Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you're going to be right."

Above: Pop artist Andy Warhol, left, is shown photographing Muhammad Ali, his infant daughter, Hanna, and wife, Veronica. August 18, 1977.

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up."

Above: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is given the Courage Award by singer Whitney Houston at the GQ Men of the Year awards show in New York. October 21, 1998.

"Often it isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the little pebble in your shoe."

Above: Boxing legend Muhammad Ali holds up the first Olympic torch lit from the cauldron in front of a map showing the torch's route during a ceremony at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

Above: Muhammad Ali sits on the stage during an announcement marking a new philanthropic initiative in the Lexington Convention Center in Lexington, Ky. May 19, 2009.