History Quotes / TheGodfather

->'''Vito:''' I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this and Fredo... well, Fredo was... But I never wanted this for you. I worked my whole life -- I don't apologize -- to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool, dancing on a string held by all of those big shots. That's my life, I don't apologize for that. But I always thought that when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something.\\

->"I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this and Fredo... well, Fredo was... But I never wanted this for you. I worked my whole life. I don't apologize to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool, dancing on a string held by all of those big shots. That's my life, I don't apologize for that. But I always thought that when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something."
->"Another ''pezzonovante''."
->"Well, there wasn't enough time, Michael. There just wasn't enough time."
->"We'll get there, pop. We'll get there."
-->-- '''Vito Corleone''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

-> "Oh, Michael. Michael, you are blind. It wasn't a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion. Something that's unholy and evil. I didn't want your son, Michael! I wouldn't bring another one of your sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son Michael! A son! And I had it killed because this must all end!"

-> "I know now that it's over. I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael... no way you could ever forgive me now with this Sicilian thing that's been going on for 2,000 years."

->''"Your sins are terrible. It is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know you don't believe that. You will not change."''

->''"I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I've spoiled them as you can see. They talk when they should listen [...] Santino. Come here. What's the matter with you? Your brain is going soft from playing with that girl. Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again."''

->"I'm not a ''pezzonovante''."

->''"I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I've spoiled them as you can see. They talk when they should listen."''

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

-> "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."
-->--'''Michael Corleone'''

-> "A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns"
-->--'''Vito Corleone'''

-> "I believe in America. America has made my fortune."
-->--'''Amerigo Bonasera'''

-> '''Bonasera:''' "I ask you for justice."
-> '''Vito Corleone:''' "That is not justice - your daughter is still alive."
-> '''Bonasera:''' "Let them suffer then. As she suffers. How much shall I pay you?"
-> '''Vito:''' "Bonasera. Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you to treat me so disrespectfully. If you had come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you."
-> '''Bonasera:''' "Be my friend... Godfather."
-> '''Vito:''' "Good. Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day."
-->-- Opening scene of Part I

-> "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

-> "Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your home on the wedding day of your daughter. May their first child be a masculine child."

-> "Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter's wedding... on the wedding day of your daughter's wedding... And I hope that their first child is a masculine child."

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

-> "Goddamn FBI don't respect nothin'."

-> "I don't like violence, Tom. I'm a businessman; blood is a big expense."

-> "Bene, Don Corleone. I need a man who has powerful friends. I need a million dollars in cash. I need, Don Corleone, all of those politicians that you carry around in your pocket, like so many nickels and dimes."

-> [Silence]

-> "No Sicilian can refuse any request on his daughter's wedding day."

-> "It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."

-> "In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns."

-> "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

-> "It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."

-> "Hey, come over here kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for twenty guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, ya fry it, ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil, you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs. And a little bit of wine. And a little bit of sugar, and that's my trick."

-> "I spent my life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless. But not men."

-> "I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this and Fredo... well, Fredo was... But I never wanted this for you. I worked my whole life. I don't apologize to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool, dancing on a string held by all of those big shots. That's my life, I don't apologize for that. But I always thought that when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something."
-> "I'm not a ''pezzonovante''."
-> "Well, there wasn't enough time, Michael. There just wasn't enough time."

-> "But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him - If he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell - or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning, then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive. But, that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we've made here today."

-> "Now listen: I want somebody good -- and I mean very good -- to plant that gun. I don't want my brother coming out of that toilet with just his dick in his hands, alright?"

-> "Only don't tell me that you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and it makes me very angry."

-> "...also don't believe in drugs. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn't do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, "I have powders; if you put up three, four thousand dollar investment, we can make fifty thousand distributing." So they can't resist. I want to control it as a business, to keep it respectable."
-> (slams table)

-> "How's Paulie?"
-> "Oh, Paulie... won't see him no more."

-> "Look how they massacred my boy."

-> "I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I've spoiled them as you can see. They talk when they should listen."

-> "Don't ask me about my work, Kay."
-->--'''Michael Corleone'''

-> "Times have changed. It's not like the old days when we could do anything we want. A refusal is not the act of a friend. Don Corleone had all the judges and the politicians in New York, and he must share them. He must let us draw the water from the well. Certainly, he can present a bill for such services. After all, we are not Communists."
-->--'''Don Barzini'''

->''Fredo, you're my brother and I love you. But don't ever take sides against the family again.''
-->--'''Michael Corleone'''

-> "Hyman Roth has been dying from the same heart attack for the last twenty years."

-> "You're nothing to me now... You're not a brother. You're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do... I don't want to see you at the hotels. I don't want you near my house... When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance so I won't be there... You understand?"

-> "Our friend and associate Hyman Roth is in the news. The High Court of Israel turned down his request to live there as a returning Jew. He landed in Buenos Aires last night offering a "gift" of a million dollars if they'd let him stay. They said no. His passport's been invalidated, except for his return trip to the States."

-> "Sir, my client has answered every question asked by this committee with the utmost sincerity."

-> "There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

-> "If I could only live to see it, to be there with you. What I wouldn't give for twenty more years! Here we are, protected, free to make our profits without Kefauver, the goddamn Justice Department, and the F.B.I. ninety miles away, in partnership with a friendly government. Ninety miles! It's nothing! Just one small step, looking for a man who wants to be President of the United States, and having the cash to make it possible. Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel."

-> "I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!"

-> "I don't want anything to happen to him while my mother's alive."

-> There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost, or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order.[[labelnote:*]]Michael did.[[/labelnote]] When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen; I didn't ask who gave the order, because ''it had nothing to do with business!''"

-> "I'm going to take a nap. When I wake up, if the money is on the table, I'll know I have a partner. If it isn't, I'll know I don't."

-> "Good health is the most important thing. More than success, more than money, more than power."

-> "Young man, I hear you and your friends are stealing goods. But you don't even send a dress to my house. No respect! You know I've got three daughters. This is my neighborhood. You and your friends should show me some respect. You should let me wet my beak a little. I hear you and your friends cleared $600 each. Give me $200 each, for your own protection. And I'll forget the insult. You young punks have to learn to respect a man like me! Otherwise the cops will come to your house. And your family will be ruined. Of course, if I'm wrong about how much you stole, I'll take a little less. And by less, I only mean - a hundred bucks less. Now don't refuse me. Understand, paisan? Understand, paisan?... Tell your friends I don't want a lot. Just enough to wet my beak. Don't be afraid to tell them!"

->(watching a Punch and Judy show)
-> "Oh, this is too violent for me!" (walks away)

-> "But Vito is only nine. And dumb-witted. The child cannot harm you."

->(Vito returns to Sicily to visit Ciccio, who murdered his family)

->(Vito stabs Ciccio)

-> "Hyman Roth always makes money for his partners. One by one, our old friends are gone. Death, natural or not, prison, deported. Hyman Roth is the only one left, because he always made money for his partners."

-> "I loved baseball ever since Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series in 1919."

-> "I'd give four million just to be able to take a piss without it hurting."

-> "Michael, why are the drapes open?"

-> (Michael slaps Kay)

-> "Your country ain't your blood."

-> "It seems in today's world the power to absolve debt is greater than the power of forgiveness."

-> ''(Stabs Licio Lucchesi in the throat with his own glasses)''

-> "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in."

-> "When they come... they come at what you love."

-> "Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment."

-> "Never let anyone know what you are thinking."

-> "The higher I go, the crookeder it becomes."

-> "Your sins are terrible. It is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know you don't believe that. You will not change."

-> "My dear children: It is now better than several years since I moved to New York, and I haven't seen you as much as I would like to. I hope you will come to the ceremony of papal honors given for my charitable work. The only wealth in this world is children; more than all the money, power on earth, you are my treasure."

-> "I would burn in hell to keep you safe."

-> "The richest man is the one with the most powerful friends."

-> "Kay, I had a very different destiny planned for us."

-> "You know, Michael; now that you're so respectable, I think you're more dangerous than ever. I liked you better when you were just a common Mafia hood."

-> "The Godfather is the ''I Ching''. The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom. The Godfather is the answer to any question. What should I pack for my summer vacation? "Leave the gun, take the cannoli." What day of the week is it? "Maunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday." And the answer to your question is "Go to the mattresses." You're at war. "It's not personal, it's business."
-->--'''Joe Fox''' in ''Film/YouveGotMail''

-->--'''Joe Fox''' in ''YouveGotMail''

-> "It's a Sicilian message. It means {{Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes}}."

-> There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost, or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen; I didn't ask who gave the order, because ''it had nothing to do with business!''"

-> "It's a Sicilian message. It means {{{Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes}}."

-> "I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this and Fredo... well, Fredo was... But I never wanted this for you. I live my life, I don't apologize to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool dancing on the strings held by all of those big shots. That's my life I don't apologize for that. But I always thought that when it was your time that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something."

-> "But I'm a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him - If he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell - or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning, them I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive. But, that aside, let me say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we've made here today."

-->-- '''Al Neri''', '''Tom Hagen''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

-> "If I could only live to see it, to be there with you. What I wouldn't give for twenty more years! Here we are, protected, free to make our profits without Kefauver, the goddamn Justice Department and the F.B.I. ninety miles away, in partnership with a friendly government. Ninety miles! It's nothing! Just one small step, looking for a man who wants to be President of the United States, and having the cash to make it possible. Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel."

-> There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen; I didn't ask who gave the order, because ''it had nothing to do with business!''"

-> "Oh, Michael. Michael, you are blind. It wasn't a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion. Something that's unholy and evil. I didn't want your son, Michael! I wouldn't bring another one of you sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son Michael! A son! And I had it killed because this must all end!"

-> "I know now that it's over. I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael... no way you could ever forgive me not with this Sicilian thing that's been going on for 2,000 years."

->''(Stabs Licio Lucchesi in the throat with his own glasses)''

-->--'''Joe Fox''' in ''YouveGotMail''

---->--'''Michael Corleone'''

---->--'''Vito Corleone'''

-> "I believe in America"
---->--'''Amerigo Bonasera'''

--->-- Opening scene of Part I

--->-- '''Vito Corleone''' to Johnny Fontane

--->-- '''Luca Brasi''', practicing his speech

--->-- '''Luca Brasi''', before Vito Corleone

--->-- '''Vito Corleone''' to Johnny Fontane

--->-- '''Sonny Corleone'''

--->-- '''Sollozzo''' to Tom Hagan

--->-- '''Sollozzo''' to Vito Corleone

-> "My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' and '''Kay Adams'''

-> "Oh, who's being naive, Kay?"
--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' and '''Kay Adams'''

--->-- '''Tom Hagen''' to his wife

-> "It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."
--->-- '''Peter Clemenza''' to Sonny Corleone

--->-- '''Calo'''

--->-- '''Peter Clemenza''' to Rocco

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael''' and '''Clemenza''', discussing the coming mob war.

--->-- '''Clemenza''' giving Michael his special recipe.

-> "I spent my life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless but not men."
--->-- '''Vito Corleone''' to Michael Corleone

-> "I'm not a pezzonovante."

--->-- '''Vito Corleone''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Vito Corleone'''

--->-- '''Sonny Corleone''' to Peter Clemenza and Tom Hagen

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' to Carlo Rizzi

--->-- '''Tessio''' and '''Tom Hagen'''

-> "I don't want it near schools! I don't want it sold to children! That's an infamia. In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people, the coloreds. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls."

--->-- '''Sonny Corleone''' and '''Peter Clemenza'''

--->-- '''Vito Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' and '''Captain [=McCluskey=]'''

--->-- '''Vito Corleone'''

--->--'''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Kay Adams-Corleone''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' and '''Hyman Roth'''

-> "It ain't the way I wanted it!!... I can handle things! I'm smart, not like everybody says, like, dumb! I'm smart, and I want respect!"
--->-- '''Fredo Corleone''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' to Fredo Corleone

--->-- '''Al Neri''', '''Tom Hagen''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Tom Hagan'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Hyman Roth''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''', regarding Fredo's murder

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' and '''Fredo Corleone'''

--->-- '''Tom Hagen''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Hyman Roth''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Hyman Roth''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Hyman Roth''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Massimo Fanucci''', to Vito Corleone

->(watching fighting puppets)

--->-- '''Massimo Fanucci'''

--->-- '''Signora Andolini''' to Ciciio

--->-- '''Ciciio''' and '''Vito Corleone'''

--->-- '''Johnny Ola''', to Michael Corleone

-> "I loved baseball ever since Arnold Rothstien fixed the World Series in 1919."
--->-- '''Hyman Roth''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Hyman Roth''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Kay Adams-Corleone''', just before an attempted assassination.

--->-- '''Kay Adams-Corleone''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Vincent Mancini''' and '''Licio Lucchesi'''

--->-- '''Archbishop Gilday'''

--->-- '''Calo''' to Licio Lucchesi

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Cardinal Lambento''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' to Mary Corleone

--->-- '''Vincent Mancini''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Mary Corleone''' and '''Vincent Mancini'''

--->-- '''Connie Corleone''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''', to Kay Adams-Corleone

--->-- '''Kay Adams-Corleone''' to Michael Corleone

--->-- '''B.J. Harrison''' and '''Michael Corleone'''

--->--'''Joe Fox''' in ''YouveGotMail''

!!!About TheGodfather

<<|QuotesWiki|>>

-> " In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns."

There are a ridiculous amount of good quotes from the Godfather series.

-> "Don't ask me about my work, Kay"

-> "I ask you for justice."
-> "That is not justice - your daughter is still alive."
-> "Let them suffer then. As she suffers. How much shall I pay you?"
-> "Bonasera. Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you to treat me so disrespectfully. If you had come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you."
-> "Be my friend... Godfather."
-> "Good. Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as gift on my daughter's wedding day."
--->-- '''Bonasara''' and '''Vito Corleone'''

--->-- '''Michael Corleone''' and '''Captain McCluskey'''

->(Vito returns to Sicily to visit Ciciio, who murdered his family)

->(Vito stabs Ciciio)