Muhammad Ali: The boxing icon's 10 best quotes

'It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am'

Muhammad Ali as he looks round at the waiting fans as he arrives at Heathrow Airport (PA)

Muhammad Ali was not only a prolific boxer, he also had a quick wit.

His inspirational words will see the three-time champion remembered for more than just boxing.Here are, arguably, his top 10 quotes:

1. "Why are all the angels white? Why ain’t there no black angels?"

In a sermon at apostolic church in 1983

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

On his strategy in the boxing ring

3. “I shook up the world, I'm the king of the world. You must listen to me. I am the greatest! I can't be beat!”

After beating Sonny Liston

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

Tweeting in February 2013

5. “I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.”

Before fighting George Foreman in 1974

6. “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.”

On determination and self-belief

7. “It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.”

On modesty

8. “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

On why he refused to fight in the Vietnam War

9. “I am America. I am the part you won't recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”

On his identity in America

10. “The man with no imagination has no wings.”

On the importance of imagination