Mario Puzo > Quotes

“Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.- Don Corleone”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Great men are not born great, they grow great . . .”
― 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

“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

“Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“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.”
― Mario Puzo, Fools Die

“The man with the briefcase can steal more money than the man with the gun.”
― 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

“Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.”
― Mario Puzo

“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”
― Mario Puzo, Fools Die

“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.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”
― Mario Puzo

“Behind every great fortune, there is a crime. a”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“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.”
― Mario Puzo, The Last Don

“Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“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.”
― Mario Puzo, The Family

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

“A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man”
― Mario Puzo

“it's just business nothing personal...”
― Mario Puzo

“Power isn't everything ...its the only thing.”
― Mario Puzo, The Last Don

“A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Take the gun. Leave the cannoli.”
― Mario Puzo

“Why should I be afraid now? Strange men have come to kill me ever since I was twelve years old.”
― 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. - Calo”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Power wears out those who do not have it.”
― Mario Puzo

“We are all honorable men here, we do not have to give each other assurances as if we were lawyers.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“I'll tell you the only real truth. Cunt is where it all begins and where it all ends. Cunt is the only thing worth living for. Everything else is a fake, a fraud and just shit.”
― Mario Puzo, Fools Die

“Life is Beautiful”
― Mario Puzo, The Sicilian

“Life is like a box of Hand grenades,You never know what will blow you to kingdom come”
― Mario Puzo, The Last Don

“Falling in love is great but being in love is a disaster”
― Mario Puzo

“Every man has but one destiny" Veto Corleone”
― Mario Puzo

“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”
― Mario Puzo

“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

“In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.”
― Mario Puzo

“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”
― Mario Puzo, The Last Don

“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.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Oh, what a wicked world it is that drives a man to sin.”
― Mario Puzo, The Last Don

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

“I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. From "The Godfather".”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Tell my father i wish to be his son.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Let us be separated by wars and pestilence, death, madness but not by the passing of time.”
― Mario Puzo, Fools Die

“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.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

“Lawyers can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks."

-Don Vito Corleone”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather