Mario Puzo quotes:

Friendship and money: oil and water.

He was a degenerate gambler. That is, a man who gambled simply to gamble and must lose. As a hero who goes to war must die. Show me a gambler and I'll show you a loser, show me a hero and I'll show you a corpse.

Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.

A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.

Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.

Every man has but one destiny" Veto Corleone

Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.

Even the strongest man needs friends.

Take the gun. Leave the cannoli.

No, that's not possible," Michael said. "Killed, yes; jail, no.

What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.

The truth now.He was disappointed in human beings.He had seen too many betrayals,too many pitiful weaknesses,too much greed for money and fame.The falseness between lovers,husbands and wifes,fathers,sons,mothers,daughters

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.

The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. 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. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed.

Never show anger at slight,Tell nothing.Earn Respect from everyone by deeds,not Words.Respect the members of your Blood Family.Gambling was Recreation,Not a way to earn a Living.Love your Father,your Mother, your Sister but beware of Loving any other Woman than your Wife.And a Wife was a woman who bore your Children.And once that happened to You,your Life was Forfeit to give them their daily bread

Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.- Don Corleone

And in that fraction of a second before anything actually happened, Santino Corleone knew he was a dead man.

Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.

Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind

Life is like a box of Hand grenades,You never know what will blow you to kingdom come

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.

Fredo you're my older brother and I love you. But don't ever take sides against the family...

Do you believe a man can truly love a woman and constantly betray her?Never mind physically but betray her in his mind,in the very "poetry of his soul".Well,it's not easy but men do it all the time.

If anything in this life is certain...if history has taught us anything, it's that you cn kill anyone.

Why should I be afraid now? Strange men have come to kill me ever since I was twelve years old.

She emptied her mind of all thought of herself, of her children, of all anger, of all rebellion, of all questions. Then with a profound and deeply willed desire to believe, to be heard, as she had done every day since the murder of Carlo Rizzi, she said the necessary prayers for the soul of Michael Corleone.

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

The only wealth in this world is children, more than all the money, power on earth.

He smelled the garden, the yellow shield of light smote his eyes, and he whispered, "Life is so beautiful." ... Yes, he thought, if I can die saying, "Life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important.

A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults

there was no greater natural advantage in life than having an enemy overestimate your faults, unless it was to have a friend underestimate your virtues.

A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.

I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

God seemed to be having a hard time killing him, and he'd be damned if he was going to make the job easy for mere mortals

A lawyer can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns.

Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind.

He'd always been a man who followed his head and not his heart.The heart was just a bloody motor.The head was meant to drive

In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.

I have always believed helping your fellow man is profitable in every sense, personally and bottom line.

Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.

All gamblers are paranoid, though they call it superstition.

Any man can turn traitor.

Behind every successful fortune;There is Crime.

Even as a young man, Vito Corleone became known as a "man of reasonableness." He never uttered a threat. He always used logic that proved to be irresistible. He always made certain that the other fellow got his share of profit. Nobody lost. He did this, of course, by obvious means. Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.

Every family has bad memories.

Falling in love is great but being in love is a disaster

Gambling is not as destructive as war or as boring as pornography. It is not as immoral as business or as suicidal as watching television. And the percentages are better than religion.

Great men are not born great, they grow great . . .

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.

I believe in America. America's made my fortune.

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.

I like to drink wine more than I used to. Anyway, I'm drinking more.

I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.

I want to tell you a story. I have no other vanity.

I will make you an offer you cannot refuse

It can be argued that man's instinct to gamble is the only reason he is still not a monkey up in the trees.

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.

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.

it's just business nothing personal...

Let us be separated by wars and pestilence, death, madness but not by the passing of time.

Love is like the little red toy wagon you get for your Christmas or your sixth birthday. It makes you deliriously happy and you just can't leave it alone. But sooner or later the wheels come off. Then you leave it in a corner and forget it. Falling in love is great. Being in love is a disaster

Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright.

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.

Michael: Barzini will set me up through somebody close... that, supposedly, I won't suspect. Hagen: Somebody like me. Michael: You're Irish, they won't trust you. Hagen: I'm German-American. Michael: To them that's Irish.

Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.

Never let a domestic quarrel ruin a day's writing. If you can't start the day fresh, get rid of your wife.

Not having to worry about money is almost like not having to worry about dying.

Oh, what a wicked world it is that drives a man to sin.

Power isn't everything ...its the only thing.

Power wears out those who do not have it.

Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.

Santino, never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking. Never let them know what you have under your fingernails. I think your brain is going soft from all that comedy you play with that young girl. Stop it and pay attention to business. Now get out of my sight.

Some honorable men spend their whole life preparing for a supreme act of treachery

Tell my father I wish to be his son.

The fact of the matter is that I wanted to hold a grudge in some funny kind of way.Against everybody.

The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.

There are things that have to be done and you do them and you don't talk about them. You don't try to justify them. They can't be justified. You just do them. Then you forget them.

Time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty!

ِAn offer you can't refuse

We are a family, and the loyalty of the family must come before anything and everyone else. For if we honor that commitment, we will never be vanquished-but if we falter in that loyalty we will all be condemned.

We are all honorable men here, we do not have to give each other assurances as if we were lawyers.

We don't know if capital punishment is a deterrent, but we know that men we execute will not murder again.

What is past is past. never go back. Not for excuses. Not for justification, not for happiness. You are what you are, the world is what it is.

When I was young, some women told me they loved me for my long eyelashes. I accepted. Later it was for my wit. Then for my power and money. Then for my talent. Then for my mind-deep. OK, I can handle all of it. The only woman who scares me is the one who loves me for myself alone. I have plans for her. I have poisons and daggers and dark graves in caves to hide her head. She can't be allowed to live. Especially if she's sexually faithful and never lies and always puts me ahead of everything and everyone.

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.

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. - Calo

I find the only thing that really stands up, better than gambling, better than booze, better than women, is reading.