I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Great men are not born great, they grow great . . .
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
The lawyer with the briefcase can steal more money than the man with the gun.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
I don’t trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
You cannot say ‘no’ to the people you love, not often. That’s the secret. And then when you do, it has to sound like a ‘yes’. Or you have to make them say ‘no.’ You have to take time and trouble.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Italians have a little joke, that the world is so hard a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that’s why they have godfathers.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Tom, don’t let anybody kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it’s personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightning hit a friend of his the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal. That’s what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal Like God. He knows every feather that falls from the tail of a sparrow or however the hell it goes? Right? And you know something? Accidents don’t happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Accidents don’t happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
He smelled the garden, the yellow shield of light smote his eyes, and he whispered, Life is so beautiful.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Yes, he thought, if I can die saying, Life is so beautiful, then nothing else is important.”
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Never let anyone know what you are thinking.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Behind every successful fortune there is a crime.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty!
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Lawyers can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Why should I be afraid now? Strange men have come to kill me ever since I was twelve years old.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
We are all honorable men here, we do not have to give each other assurances as if we were lawyers.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
There are things that have to be done and you do them and you never talk about them. You don’t try to justify them. They can’t be justified. You just do them. Then you forget it.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
He had long ago learned that society imposes insults that must be borne, comforted by the knowledge that in this world there comes a time when the most humble of men, if he keeps his eyes open, can take his revenge on the most powerful. It was this knowledge that prevented the Don from losing the humility all his friends admired in him.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Michael could never remember his father ever having uttered a word about death, as if the Don respected death too much to philosophize about it.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
Yet, he thought, if I can die saying, Life is so beautiful, then nothing else is important. If i can believe in myself that much, nothing else matters.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
You can’t hide the thunderbolt. When it hits you, everybody can see it. Christ, man, don’t be ashamed of it, some men pray for the thunderbolt. You’re a very lucky fellow.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather
It was a lie but he believed in telling lies to people. Truth telling and medicine just didn’t go together except in dire emergencies, if then.
Mario Puzo, The Godfather