Top 55 Bernard Hopkins Quotes

If your car takes 95 and you put 87 in it, it’s gonna run sluggish, right? A lot of people don’t realize what you put in your body affects your mechanics, and you’re gonna run sluggish.

I’ve shown, for twenty-plus years, with a legacy that will be talked about way after I’m gone, that I am different.

I’m a health-awareness guy, and all of that includes how I eat, how much I rest, and how I keep my skin good. Any kind of maintenance that I would do on a car, I do on myself.

I have an orthodox style that a southpaw is confused with me.

If I can create an atmosphere to make my job easier and your confidence less, why not?

The majority of fighters and athletes live double lives.

If you notice, in every fight, I always have something to get into their head.

Age is not a problem. It becomes a problem when people try and make us think old.

I’m tired of proving myself.

I don’t think I can get Jack Nicholson to come out and watch me fight.

I want to be the spokesman for the 40-and-older crowd, inspiring people to believe that no matter their age, they can be healthy and save their lives.

The young is always there to replace what we call the old. That’s the process, even in nature.

I think being 50 and being me is different than any other fighter in any era.

If I go to a restaurant, which I do often, I know what I want, and it’s not on the menu half the time. Half the time, they have to adjust the menu or what they got in the back, and they’ll make it for me.

We want to give you the roses when you’re dead. That’s how human beings think. I try not to think like a human.

Always have to think like a guy with no food in his refrigerator.

I’m amongst you all, but I’m not one of you all.

If you don’t know your own value, somebody will tell you your value, and it’ll be less than you’re worth.

I am a proud man and never takes things for granted in my life.

I saw worse stuff inside prison than I ever saw in the streets.

A body that doesn’t move mentally or physically dies.

When they say you can’t, show them you can.

Most people remember the ending of the book more than the beginning and the middle.

I am not going to eat something that I have been told is not good for my system, and I do what I can to eat energy food, such as lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruit and vegetables. Without this daily habit, my body would have given up a long time ago. There is no magic pill, no magic drink, no magic food.

Father Time is whether you’re an athlete or not an athlete. Father Time is always around. I think I’m just special.

Hand-eye coordination and reflexes is something I work on more than anything.

If I was a bad guy, I probably would be incarcerated.

No one’s kicking down the door to fight Bernard Hopkins.

I say the sweet science is to understand not only how to fight coming forward, how to be a big puncher, but also understand, if you run into a guy who can take your punch for the first time, how to react.

Most of my fights are intelligent.

Boxing should not let – we should not let – the people in business of boxing should not let a person to just walk right in and get the grand prize of boxing. You can’t do it in basketball, football, hockey.

When you get older, the first thing that starts to go is reflexes, and reflexes are important for any person, especially an athlete – to react to something in a time when something is going on, and you can’t be a second or two behind.

I like the old school, then I add the new school, and I got a concoction of greatness. I can’t miss; you can’t miss with that.

I have to be smarter than my opponents. I have to figure out their styles in the ring. I have to be three or four steps ahead of them. So my mind has to be sharp.

Boxing is the sweet science. You hit and not get hit. There’s no reward for you to hit me more than I hit you other than on the scorecards.

My personal feeling is that Bernard Hopkins has never been an industry boy.

You cannot go into combat without putting the work in.

I like to do things that are noncombat- or boxing-related. So I jump rope a lot, and then I run a lot.

My whole career, I got a lot of credit for not taking punches.

I’m special, in a way that is good. I don’t have to explain ‘special.’ There is no definition for special. Special speaks for itself.

That materialistic life, that’s not my god.

When I left the penitentiary, I learned to stay away from the Philly cheesesteaks, the pizza, the junk that clogs your arteries and kills you.

It’s the inner that produces the outer.

I understand and I don’t understand human beings.

One thing I want people to know before I leave this game is I gave it my all.

I don’t rest in my business interests, I don’t rest being a husband, I don’t rest being a father, and I don’t rest doing none of these things because when you rest, you get comfortable.

I think I got the ability to speak the truth, and that gets in peoples’ heads.

I am a great champion.

I don’t react and think off emotions – that gets you in a bad situation.

UFC is street fighting in a cage. Boxing is a controlled, skilled talent. There’s no comparison.

Ninety percent of the media picked Pavlik, and I always appreciate naysayers. That’s what motivates me.

Yes, we have to look at our opponents and study our opponents. But you have to look at you first and know you can do it.

I feel like I was blacklisted in 1965.

I don’t drink occasionally. I don’t drink on the holidays. I don’t drink alcohol, period. Not wine, not nothing.

If you read Bernard Hopkins’ name in the dictionary, the definition would be ‘discipline.’