Mike tyson quotes

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

Every great general and warrior from the beginning of time was high.

I'm a vegan. I lost 150 pounds because of being a vegan.

The mind is a real dangerous neighborhood to travel by ourselves.

It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading.

Everyone in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter. He's the only one that's on Skid Row most of the time; he's the only one that everybody just leaves when he loses his mind. He sometimes goes insane, he sometimes goes on the bottle, because it's an intensive pressure sport that allows people to just lose it.

They called me a 'rapist' and a 'recluse.' I'm not a recluse.

To some people the ego is evil. It gives you so much. It gives you everything you want. But it takes back too much in return. It gives you everything: money, riches, women, glamour, everything you want. But in return it takes back so much, and you're soulless. That's its goal. The ego's goal is to leave you soulless.

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.

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

My biggest weakness is my sensitivity. I am too sensitive a person.

Fighting is all about calmness and relaxation. My appearance was all an illusion. My appearance is of a mad man, but I'm really calm and collected. Even though I'm fighting, I'm calm and relaxed as possible, despite my displays, because once you get excited, you can't fight at the highest level of your ability.

I just want to conquer people and their souls.

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

I've been a prima-dona. I was taken care of since I was 13. That's why I am the way I am today. I was spoiled, like a brat. I had anything I wanted. That's crazy to be that way all your life. Everybody's taking care of you, but manipulating you at the same time. Very few people have a life like that. Most people have to work like slaves their whole lives. I've never had a job in my life. What I know how to do is hurt big, tough men - in the street and off.

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

God lets everything happen for a reason. It's all a learning process, and you have to go from one level to another.

In order to succeed greatly, you have to be prepared to fail greatly. If you can't do both of them, you've got a problem.

No one wants to get up at 4 and run when it's pitch-dark, but it has to be done. The only reason i do it so early is because i believe the other guy isn't doing it and that gives me a little edge

I fight for perfection

Anger is my biggest enemy in life.

People relate to fighters so much because fighting reflects life.

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

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

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.

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.

I was hittin' him with body punches and I hurt him. Actually he was cryin' in there, makin' woman gestures like

I refuse to let adversity allow me to be average.

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.

Sometimes, the people we invest the most time in disappoint us the most.

I was blessed with speed and a good punch. Everybody thinks I'm the hardest puncher ever. But I just think I was really fast, and my punches got to the target faster. That's what made my knockouts always seem spectacular.

There's nothing wrong with making mistakes, just don't make the same ones. We don't want to duplicate them.

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

I was in handcuffs. I was under arrest. I remember there was this old lady looking at me, and I could tell she felt real sorry for me, and she did'nt know but all I wanted to do was take her purse.

I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian.

Guess I'm going to fade into Bolivian.

Cus was my father but he was more than a father. You can have a father and what does it mean?—it doesn't really mean anything. Cus was my backbone . . . . He did everything for my best interest . . . . We'd spend all our time together, talk about things that, later on, would come back to me. Like about character, and courage. Like the hero and the coward: that the hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters.

Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning. But fear is your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to control it, you let it work for you. If you don’t learn to control it, it’ll destroy you and everything around you. Like a snowball on a hill, you can pick it up and throw it or do anything you want with it before it starts rolling down, but once it rolls down and gets so big, it’ll crush you to death. So one must never allow fear to develop and build up without having control over it, because if you don’t you won’t be able to achieve your objective or save your life.

You have to compete in life because if you don't have no competition - no competition, no spirit, you know, you'll fall under the slightest struggle.

Discipline makes hard men. Every hard man is capable of being a killer. But every killer is not capable of being a hard man. They can't endure that much. It's all about the endurance. That's why they become killers. Because they can't endure the pain. They need to kill the pain to stop it.

In order for me to achieve... I had to regard myself greater than what I was. In other words I had to fake it until I make it.

I can sell out Madison Square Garden masturbating

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.

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

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

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.

I'm scared every time I go into the ring, but it's how you handle it. What you have to do is plant your feet, bite down on your mouthpiece and say, 'Let's go.'

I'm just happy I'm not a phoney.

Confidence breeds success & success breeds confidence... Confidence applied properly surpasses genius.

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

There's no future in our past. Just experience. We want to return to it, but we don't want to close the door on it either.

I try my best to learn from other people's mistakes. I have a lot of respect for people who can change.

We're all going to have tests in our life... We never know when that test comes, but we know we have to be prepared for it. We're all going to be tested. The dark energy is going to knock on all of our doors.

Confidence applied properly is the path of genius. You must always be in a state of confidence. And the way you sustain a state of confidence is by testing yourself. Difficult quagmires that may occur; there's always a test. You have to seek them out. You constantly have to test yourself to prepare for these quagmires. That's why I always put myself to the test.

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

One morning I woke up and found my favorite pigeon, Julius, had died I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honor him. I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher. I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard.

As human beings, nobody gets out of this world free. We all have to do some suffering before we leave.

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

There's nothing like being young, and happy, and fighting.

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.

To be successful in sports or business, you really have to live the lifestyle. Success is about lifestyle. Just because I was training and working hard, that didn't make me champion or a good fighter. My lifestyle made me a good fighter. In my mind and my daily life, I was the heavy weight champ when I was 15 or 14. I lived the life of the heavyweight champion, and that's who I became. And that is so much more than just training. So, when the time presented itself, that's who I already was. I was ready. I was already there.

Every win, regardless a good or bad one, gives you more confidence.

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

I'm the best ever. I'm the most brutal and vicious, and most ruthless champion there's ever been. There's no one can stop me. Lennox is a conqueror? No, I'm Alexander, he's no Alexander. I'm the best ever! There's never been anybody as ruthless! I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey. There's no one like me. I'm from their cloth. There's no one that can match me. 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!

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.

When you're a great finisher, you'll become popular. Joe Louis was a great finisher.

Treat the world the way you want to be treated.

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.

It doesn’t faze me what anyone says about me. It doesn’t matter what anyone says about me. I’m a totally different entity to what other people think. Michael and Tyson are two different people. I’m Tyson here.

In order to be a friend to anybody, you have to be a friend to yourself. If you're not a friend to yourself, there's no way you're gonna have any friends.

I don't care how much you love each other, if you have secrets, it'll never work. That's why she's your loved one, because it's the love of one. Togetherness, you are one.

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.

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.

Everybody you fight is not your enemy and everybody who helps you is not your friend.

I love to hit people. I love to.

There's nothing like confidence.

I had it in my mind: to be confident, and to keep saying that until the confidence appeared. But I took it too far. Confidence did help make me champion, but, man, I took it to a whole different level. I was a megalomaniac. I was not humble and it eventually came back on me. So I want my kids to know, keep humbleness and kindness in their hearts. It will prevail.

You can’t be disturbed by anything. There’s no emotion involved. You can’t feel sorrow, you can’t feel pity, there’s nothing you feel. The job has to be done.

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

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

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

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

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

Without discipline, no matter how good you are, you are nothing! One day, and I might not be around; you're going to meet a tough guy who takes your best shot. He'll keep coming because he's tough. Don't get discouraged. That's when the discipline comes in.

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

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.

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.

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.

Everybody wants to be somebody. Everybody wants to be noticed. Everybody wants to be somebody important. Importance is just treating people good. That's important.

My intentions were not to fascinate the world with my personality.

People love you when you're successful, but if you're not, who really cares about you?

Most fighters are the most humble people in the world because they've gotten their ass kicked before.

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

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

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.

You never lose until you actually give up.

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

Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.

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

There's nothing to fear but fear itself. It's an illusion of fear. Fear is an illusion. If you gonna die, you gonna die anyway; it's not something to fear, fear is not gonna help.

My power is discombobulatingly devastating. It's ludricrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm.

I normally don't do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them.

People see it [boxing] as a physical contact sport, but it's not. It's really a spiritual one of will against will. Who wants it the most? How much is he willing to take - and dish out - to get it? It's like fighting is 10 percent physical and 90 percent emotional.

I'm the most brutal and ruthless conquerer there has ever been.

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.

I may have smoked too much weed, but I wasn't taking drugs or anything.

Fighters are never who they appear to be

I got a imam, I got a rabbi, I got a priest, I got a reverend - I got 'em all. But I don't want to be holier-than-thou. I want to help everybody and still get some (sex).

I don't want my kids to be like me, I don't want my daughter to date a guy like me. You know, for a guy like me success is to take care of my children to take care of their life and make 'em cushioned. I don't want them to be around people like me. You know, success for me would be that they never have the opportunity of being in the presence of someone like 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 earned that the strong will always beat the weak, but the smart will beat the strong. Boxing is a tough guy sport. But in the end, the tough guy gets to clean the streets and be a bodyguard. In the ring, the tough guy is going to get hurt; at the end of the day, he's going to talk funny. Only the smartest win. So, I know it's cliché, but power - real power - comes from knowledge, comes from smarts.

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.

I'm the best fighter in the world. No one can beat me....My objective is to inflict as much pain as possible, to win and win spectacularly...Ever since I was 12 years old, I was groomed to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I've been prepared to handle the pressure, the dealing with the press, everything.

If you're not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you.

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

I don't try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That's nonsense. I intimidate people by hitting them.

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

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

We all have struggles in life but we have to continue to fight

Boxing is an ego-driven sport. The idea is to not get too personal or emotional with it. You just know when it's over, it's over, and that's it.

I tried to stay away from King. You can't do it. It's like staying away from taxes. Sooner or later, he'll get you.

I'm on the Zoloft to keep from killing y'all.

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

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?

We all have to control our feelings. That's the thing that separates us from animals.