Quotes by Mike Tyson

As long as we persevere and endure, we can get anything we want.

You have to have a bunch of dimensions of yourself. You have to be able to adapt in this world. You can't be a nice guy living in a world of savages.

I feel bad about my outlook, how I feel about people and society, and that I'll never be part of society the way I should.

That's what people respect, the fact that I wasn't a chump that laid on his back and gave up.

Our money is bait money, and bait money is not to be used.

I'm not a Republican, but I have some conservative views on certain things. I'm not a Democrat, either. It's just very difficult that these people hate each other over a belief. I think it all comes down to ego and competitiveness.

I can deal with adversity.

Without struggle, there is no progress. There has to be struggle in your life. You have to grow in experience to control your ego. Cause, you know, an ego can be crushed, it can be killed, it can be smashed, but it comes back. It never dies. That's the thing about the ego: it never dies.

No one who isn't an extremist can understand the mind of an extremist.

You think the speed of your fingers can match the strength of my fists?

What really amazed me was when I sent a suit out for cleaning, forgetting that $700 was in the pocket. They sent the suit back to me. If that happened in New York, both money and suit would be gone.

I'm a good friend, but I'm a hell of an enemy. As your enemy, I want your demise. When I feel that in my heart it burns till I die.

I don't do nothin' unless I risk humiliating myself and really embarrassing myself. When I have that hanging over my head, it allows me to rise to the occasion.

I want someone to attack me. No weapons. Just me and him. I like to beat men and beat them bad.

I'm addicted to perfection. Problem with my life is I was always also addicted to chaos. Perfect chaos.

I like strong women -- not necessarily a masculine woman -- but I like strong women...say a woman who runs a C.E.O. corporation. I like a strong woman with confidence -- massive confidence -- and then I want to dominate her sexually.

Man is not meant to be humble, he's meant to be humbled.

He didn't have no respect as a professional fighter should, no class. I was going to make him pay with his health for everything he said... I wanted to do it very slowly. I wanted him to remember this for a long time.

My objective is to destroy anybody over 200 pounds, in the ring or out.

I'm just protecting my children and making sure I pull them in the right direction so they don't end up like me with having to go through all that hardship. They may not survive so it's all about putting them on the right track.

This white woman came up to me, and I'm thinking, WOW. When I was a kid, she would have been robbed and raped and left for dead. This is a real strange scenario, and I just wanted to cry. I'm like, Who am I? Where's my heritage?

I didn't know how to be any other way. I felt like one of those barbarian kings just coming to conquer the Roman Empire.

If I was fighting myself, I always say that I would kill Mike Tyson but then again I don't know how hard a punch Mike Tyson can take and I don't know how hard Mike Tyson's punch is. I don't know. For me looking at me, I think I can beat me.

If Mike Tyson is in your courtroom and you don't send him to jail, it's an injustice. Everyone knows he's a bad guy. So if he is in your courtroom, he should go to jail.

Most writers, in my opinion, are dysfunctional derelicts.

Any man can do what he has to do. But doing it like you love it? That is what takes it to a whole different level. A champion does it like he loves it, even when he doesn't.

Even though I heard him say he doesn't believe, cuz' that's why from watching Ali gave me the great deal of confidence and deep-down inner belief to believe there's no man fighting that could beat me.

The most important thing in the world for show business, really, you know everything's a high-tech business, but what people want now is what they can't get -- exclusivity.

I'm a bad guy. But if I was a good guy, nobody would want to pay to see me fight.

Every punch was thrown with bad intentions.

I don't know, man, I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian.

I sacrifice so much of my life, can I at least get laid?

My main objective is to be professional but to kill him.

I'm not a good-looking guy. I don't care if my nose gets mashed.

I never look at a high point in my career. Everyone thinks about the Spinks fight, but that fight only lasted 91 seconds, so it's hard to say it defined my career.

I don't do anything. My life sucks.

I was an emotional manipulator of fighters ... You have to know how to be cold, you know? Just have no -emotions, no feelings. It takes time, though, to develop that. I'd been working on that since I was 12 years old. It doesn't happen overnight.

When you have something in life that you want to accomplish greatly, you have to be willing to give up your happiness… I've lost all my sensitivity as far as being embarrassed, being shy, you just have to lose that.

I'm gonna make sure you talk about me, and your grandkids and kids after that gonna know about me... your great grandkids will say wow, wasn't that a bizarre individual?

We live in a society where we basically live and strive on what people think about us. We're more visual people so what we see is basically what we believe which is not necessarily true.

I had to persevere because this was my life. This championship, this was the stuff I dreamt of all my life, and I wasn't gonna be denied.

I can quit boxing now and practically go into any kind of business and I'll be successful just as well as I was in boxing.

I'm sorry I let everybody down, I'm fighting just to pay my bills. I don't have the stomach for this anymore... I don't have the desire for it. I feel bad for the people... I wish they could get their money back.

Everyone says I wish I was in your shoes..., the hundreds of people that wish they were in my shoes don't know the tenth of it. If they were in my shoes they would cry like a baby.

Anything that helps pay the bills, I love it. Anything that makes people happy, I'm happy with that.

We're all going to be tested. The dark energy is going to knock on all of our doors.

Fighting is a sport; if you're not humble it's going to bring humbleness to you.

Boxing brought me money and fame, but it never brought me no happiness.

At times, I come across as crude or crass, that irritates you when I come across like a Neanderthal or a babbling idiot at times. But I like to be that person. I like to show you all that person because that's who you come to see.

I know at times I come across like a Neanderthal or a babbling idiot, but I like that person.

I like horror movies. Nightmare on Elm Street is my favourite. I even get scared a little bit watching horror.

I'm doing what great artists before me did, like Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Eddie Cantor. I'm doing what they were doing, not at their level yet, but one day I will be. I'm just happy to be in their company.

I hope I can improve. I'm far from perfect. Sometimes, I wonder what would happen if I fought myself. I think it would be a one-round KO. But if I was fighting myself, I know I could take my best punch. No, make that two rounds. I would knock myself out in two rounds.

You stand your ground and you perform your art. That's what the artist does. The artist is about perfection.

Tupac Shakur always wanted me to smoke weed with him, and I never did it, and I wish I did...That's my biggest regret.

I want to throw down your kid and stomp on his testicles, and then you will know what it is like to experience waking up everyday as me. And only then will you feel my pain.

You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour. If Tetris has taught me anything, it's that errors pile up and accomplishments disappear. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

I'm just a guy that is basically depending on my responsibility skills. I'm really responsible with my children and my wife and my family life. Things have changed with me. I'm not a night person anymore. I've got too many responsibilities to play.

Basically I don't care what people think of me. I'm not in the communications business.

I can talk about humility, but I'm not humble. I mean, if you say, I'm humble, you've just contradicted yourself. But I'm trying to be, man, I'm trying so hard.

At one point, I thought life was about acquiring things. But as a I get older, life is totally about losing everything.

The one thing I know, everyone respects the true person and everyone's not true with themselves.

I just have this thing inside me that wants to eat and conquer. Maybe it's egotistical, but I have it in me. I don't want to be a tycoon. I just want to conquer people and their souls.

Everybody thinks this is a tough man's sport. This is not a tough man's sport. This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport.

Cus D'Amato told me, 'You're the type of guy who has to be hurt to learn.' I'm pissed off today because he was right about everything.

Back when I was a kid, I never liked the kind of kids that my kids have become. They're privileged and have things very easy. But I'm proud of them. None of my kids are getting high, they love school, they're very popular.

My objective was to hurt the other fighters. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted to be merciless. Man, I was a wild thing. It's kind of a drug, a rush.

Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It's like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you; it can heat your house. If you can't control it, it will burn everything around you and destroy you. If you can control your fear, it makes you more alert, like a deer coming across the lawn.

Lennox Lewis, I'm coming for you man. My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable, and I'm just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children. Praise be to Allah!

My style was impetuous, my defenses were impregnable, and I was ferocious.

I still can't believe Muhammad Ali knows my name. It astounds me he knows who I am. I first met Ali in 1976. I was locked up in a juvenile home and he came to visit. I've never forgotten it.

I can sell out Madison Square Garden masturbating.

I'm not used to sensitivity any more. When I see people cry when I lose, save your tears. I don't know how to handle people crying any more. I lost my sensitivity like that. Please, you embarrass me when you cry because I don't know what to do when you cry. I don't know what to say.

My father was a pimp before he became a deacon or something. These people know how to handle women. I'm the worst guy in the world with women. They run circles around me.

If they don't have that extreme addict personality, you can never understand how a guy can blow 300 or 400 million dollars. If I have to live at the top of the world, I also have to live at the bottom of the ocean. I don't know how to live in the middle of life.

Everybody in America is so money-hungry. It's like a rat race and even when you win you're still a freaking rat.

I like entertaining people. I like being on stage. I like being in the life. This is what I do. This is the only thing I know how to do besides rob people and fight. Even when I was robbing people, I was entertaining them. But that's just what I love doing.

People say 'Poor guy.' That insults me. I despise sympathy. So I screwed up. I made some mistakes. 'Poor guy,' like I'm some victim. There's nothing poor about me.

You can't be everybody's friend, you can't save the world, I learned this word: self-preservation. Once you do that, you can be friends with people, but how would you be a friend to anybody if you're not a friend to yourself.

Unfortunately, sometimes you can't have fun accomplishing your goals. Sometimes people don't have the determination, the will, the steadfastness, the tenacity, they give in under the slightest struggle.

I hate to cry and I hate to sound like sour grapes, but no one ever listens to me. No one ever hears what I have to say.

I don't want to be grotesque, but when you're 330 pounds, it's hard to wipe your a. You know?

When I go to Europe or South America, they laugh at things that are totally different than what Americans would laugh at. It's just so crazy how we're so different in personalities with other people.

Yes, time flies. And where did it leave you? Old too soon...smart too late.

God, it would be good to be a fake somebody rather than a real nobody.

I never think of physical fighting. It's always spiritual. Fighting is spiritual.

I felt the same fear in my first fight as I did in my last fight. It never goes away.

All praise is to Allah, I'll fight any man, any animal, if Jesus were here I'd fight him too.

Nothing is more humbling than getting your ass kicked.

It's nothing personal, but I'm going to kill this guy.

Destroy or be destroyed! I just love that way of life!

What I've done in the past is history and what I'm gonna do in the future is a mystery.

You need to learn independence. You have to be independent -- it builds character.

Fighting is not physical, fighting is spiritual. It's the determination and the will in the guy.

You have to feel comfortable being uncomfortable. I'm always comfortable being uncomfortable. And to be comfortable being uncomfortable, I have to hone my discipline, which to me is doing what I have to do, but also doing it like I love it.

I am the most ruthless, brutal champion ever. There is no one who can match me. I want your heart. I want to eat your children.

A man that is a friend to everyone is an enemy to himself.

Money is my God. If you think God will help you then quit your job and see how much he cares.

Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but nonetheless doing it like you love it.

I always had a lot of responsibilities. I just didn't take them. I just decided to take care of my responsibilities, live up to them. That's a pretty interesting job. It's harder than being heavyweight champion of the world.

The tempt for greatness is the biggest drug in the world.

Greatness is not guarding yourself from the people; greatness is being accepted by the people.

I'll never be happy. I believe I'll die alone. I would want it that way. I've been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain. I'm really lost, but I'm trying to find myself. I'm really a sad, pathetic case. My whole life has been a waste. I've been a failure. I just want to escape.

Hard times fall upon everybody. Whatever it is, we're going to get out of it.

What I want to do in life is just be a respectful man and just take care of my children and guide my family in the right direction. I'm not looking to be a chairperson, I'm not looking to be ambassador or anything in that capacity.

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Everybody in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter.

I just want to conquer people and their souls.

I'll go back and take what the people owe me.

I don't react to a tragic happening any more. I took so many bad things as a kid and some people think I don't care about anything. It's just too hard for me to get emotional. I can't cry no more.

One day some guy is going to get a billion-dollar fight.

I try to catch them right on the tip of his nose, because I try to punch the bone into the brain.

People are going to say what they say. I know sometimes I say things; I offend people.

I was hoping he would get up so I could hit him again and keep him down.

I'm a Muslim, but I think Jesus would have a drink with me. He would be cool. He would talk to me.

I know why they don't like me because they want the money I have.

You can't stay married in a situation where you are afraid to go to sleep in case your wife might cut your throat.

Quayle said the worst thing that happened to him was that he never trusted his own judgment. I said from now on I am going to go with my own judgment.

I did my time for the rape. I paid my money to Las Vegas. I paid my dues.

I'm not much for talking. You know what I do. I put guys in body bags when I'm right.

Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent.

When Jesus comes back, these crazy, greedy, capitalistic men are gonna kill him again.

I'm just like you. I enjoy the forbidden fruits in life, too.

I'm going to gut you like a fish.

That equals to being a fool, having fame and no fortune. A lot of guys out there have fame doing this and doing that, but they are broke.

I'm a historian, and that freaks me out.

Every time there's a revolution, it comes from somebody reading a book about revolution. David Walker wrote a book and Nat Turner did his thing.

I know how hard it is to be a woman, especially a black woman.

I could feel his muscle tissues collapse under my force. It's ludicrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm.

I know I'm going to blow one day. My life is doomed the way it is. I have no future.

When I fight someone, I want to break his will. I want to take his manhood. I want to rip out his heart and show it to him.

I love to hit people. I love to.

I'm not Mother Teresa, but I'm not Charles Manson, either.

Sometimes I put on a ski mask and dress in old clothes, go out on the streets and beg for quarters.

I ain't the same person I was when I bit that guy's ear off.

I don't understand why people would want to get rid of pigeons. They don't bother no one.

I feel like sometimes that I was not meant for this society.

You come home, and you party. But after that, you get a hangover. Everything about that is negative.

When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap -- people shouldn't read that stuff.

I'm a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds.