Quotable

I haven’t done this for awhile.  And it’s great fun shuffling through all the amazing quotations out there, picking a few here and there that peak my interest.

“To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.”
– Albert Einstein

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.”
– Ellen Goodman (Journalist)

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”
– Albert Einstein

“You’re never too old to become younger.”
– Mae West

“I have not lost my mind – it’s backed up on disk somewhere.”
– Unknown

“Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.”
– The Bible

And More Quotes

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
– Nikita Khrushchev

Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.
– Rudyard Kipling

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
– Will Rogers

It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.
– Malcom Forbes

Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose.
– Andy Rooney

One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.
– Kurt Vonnegut

Quotable

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
– Albert Einstein

“It is well that war is so terrible – otherwise we would grow too fond of it.”
– General Robert E. Lee

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
– George Orwell

“Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place.”
– Billy Crystal

Muhammed Ali – Truly the Greatest

Muhammad Ali is a special man. Not only did he bring joy, passion, humor, power and grace to the brutal sport of boxing, he moved through the world in the same way. He was outspoken, confident, strong, and he was willing to stand up and take a lick for what he believed. He shunned his given name of Cassius Clay, Jr. for an Islamic name, Muhammed Ali, one who is worthy of praise.

Ali refused to step forward and be drafted by the US Army during the Vietnam War, and ended up being a conscientious objector. He was quoted as saying, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.”

As a young boy, I recall staying up late to listen to his early fights on the radio. They rarely started before 10PM, but I would remain awake, even if I had school the next day, to root for The Champ. As you can imagine, boxing is entirely a visual sport, so listening to a bout forced me to visualize the fight in my imagination.

Here are a few of his quotations, clearly indicating his belief in self, pride, passion, and joy of living in this world.

• 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 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.
• 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.
• A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
• 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.
• I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.
• Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.
• The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

This month, Muhammed Ali turned 65. It was a pleasure to watch this gifted person in the ring as he would “dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”

The world needs more people like Muhammed Ali.