Muhammad Ali Quotes

I am proud to be an African.

I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that.

I'm standing for real freedom.

The truth sets you free. It's a very liberating thing, when you say this is who I am warts and all and then you can just get on with life. It's amazing.

I just felt like I had to create a life for myself where I was more independent.

The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.

I'm beyond caring what anyone expects of me anymore.

Body and soul, Black America reveals the extreme questions of contemporary life, questions of freedom and identity: How can I be who I am?

Self Emancipation

… the best way to aid the human being to emancipate himself is to educate him

Black Consciousness seeks to infuse the black community with a new-found pride in themselves, their efforts, their value systems, their culture, their religion and their outlook to life.

I changed my name when we became aware of the African revolution and the whole question of our African roots.

More having to do whatever anybody said you had to do. I couldn't really do anything on my own. But as I got older and then came to America and then Grace became my name, it somehow freed me. All of a sudden, I can be this other person.

If you stop trying to restrict yourself by defining yourself and love in other people's terms, it's the most liberating thing.

I get to decide how my body shows up in any space. When I'm walking into a place like the Globes, I want to make it very clear that how I show up is to further the freedom of everybody.

Let each person have a chance to be who he or she wants to be. Only then can we be considered a truly liberated nation.

Oh, I don't like labels.

Black people have to define who we are, or others do it for us.

Every woman in this world is allowed to define themselves how they want.

Once I turned eighteen, I could cut myself off from everyone and finally get what I wanted, which was to be on my own, once and for all. ~Ruby, pg 38

Freedom is the supreme good; freedom from self imposed limitation.

When I heard the truth about my name was not Cassius Clay, like I knew a black man in America named John Hawkins. Now, you know who John Hawkins was.He was a slave trader from England. But the white people of that time, if one had five slaves and his name was Jones, they would be called Jones' property. [...] Now that I'm free, now that I'm no longer a slave, then I want a name of my ancestors.

You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free.

Finally and long overdue, your people, oppressed and disgraced by hatred and maliciousness, have achieved justice: now you enjoy full citizen's rights, but you'll remain Jews nonetheless.

No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.