Mario Puzo, The Godfather
14 quotes
"Behind every successful fortune there is a crime."
"Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.- Don Corleone"
"Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family. Never forget that. If you had built up a wall of friendship you wouldn't have to ask me to help. - Don Corleone"
"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."
"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."
"A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man,"
"Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright."
"Great men are not born great, they grow great . . ."
"And in that fraction of a second before anything actually happened, Santino Corleone knew he was a dead man."
"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."
"What would the world come to if people kept carrying grudges against all reason? That has been the cross of Sicily, where men are so busy with vendettas they have no time to earn bread for their families."
"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."
"There are things that have to be done and you do them and you never talk about them.They can't be justified.You just do them.Then you forget it."
"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."