Muhammad Ali passed away Friday night leaving behind a legacy too large to fully comprehend. For years the most famous man on the planet, we are left with the legend’s images, and inspirations, and films, and books, and memories, and a lot of quotes.

They are very, very briefly excerpted below.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble.”
1964, before first fight with Sonny Liston.

“I’m young; I’m handsome; I’m fast. I can’t possibly be beat.”
1964, before first fight with Sonny Liston.

“I’m king of the world! I’m pretty! I’m a bad man! I shook up the world! I shook up the world! I shook up the world!”
25 February 1964 in Miami Beach, Florida after beating Sonny Liston for the first time.

“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong … My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me n***er, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father… Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”
17 February 1966 on refusing induction into the United States Army during the Vietnam War.

Whatever truculent means, if it’s good, I’m that.
1967, to Howard Cosell, who had just called him truculent.

I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag. I ain’t running to Canada. I’m staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain’t going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for my rights here at home.
1967 after being stripped of his title for refusing induction into theUnited States Army.

“When I’m gone, boxing will be nothing again. The fans with the cigars and the hats turned down’ll be there, but no more housewives and little men in the street and foreign presidents. It’s goin’ to be back to the fighter who comes to town, smells a flower, visits a hospital, blows a horn and says he’s in shape. Old hat. I was the onliest boxer in history people asked questions like a senator.”
In 1967, to Hunter S. Thompson.

“I never thought of losing, but now that it’s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”
March 31, 1973 after losing for the first time, to Kenny Norton.

“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.”
Muhammad Ali on losing.

Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.
Muhammad Ali on being dropped.

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.
1974, borrowed by Adidas as their slogan for a generation.

“I told you all, all of my critics, that I was the greatest of all time. … Never make me the underdog until I’m about 50 years old.”
1 October 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire, after knocking out George Foreman to regain the heavyweight championship.

“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.”
Muhammad Ali on who he was.

“I saw your wife. You’re not as dumb as you look.”
September 1975, to President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, days before he beat Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila.

“I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
1975, The Greatest

“What I suffered physically was worth what I’ve accomplished in life. A man who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life.”
28 October 1984, in Houston, Texas.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’”
February 2013 on Twitter.

You lose nothing when fighting for a cause … In my mind the losers are those who don’t have a cause they care about.
Muhammad Ali on what to fight for.

“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
Muhammad Ali on boxing.

To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.
Muhammad Ali on becoming a champion.

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.
Muhammad Ali on becoming a champion.

I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That’s what makes you a champion. 
Muhammad Ali on exercise.

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.
Muhammad Ali on obstacles.

“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
Muhammad Ali on hate.

At home I am a nice guy: but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.
Muhammad Ali on humility.

“I would like to be remembered as a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him … who stood up for his beliefs … who tried to unite all humankind through faith and love. And if all that’s too much, then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people. And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.”
Muhammad Ali on how he wants to be remembered.

“I shook up the world. Me! Whee!”
Muhammad Ali’s shortest poem.

Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.
Muhammad Ali