He Who Is Not Courageous Enough

Widely attributed to Muhammad Ali and consistent with a life defined by calculated risk-taking — from fighting Sonny Liston as a heavy underdog in 1964, to refusing induction into the US Army in 1967 at the peak of his career, to returning to boxing after a three-and-a-half-year forced exile. No specific primary source has been verified for this exact formulation, which circulates extensively in interviews attributed to him.