Mario Puzo Quotes

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

Source: The Godfather

“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

Variant: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.
Source: The Godfather

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

“Great men are not born great, they grow great…”

Source: The Last Don

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

Source: 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.”

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

-Don Vito Corleone
Source: The Godfather

Mario Puzo Quotes about men

“One lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns…”

Source: 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 book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

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

“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”

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

Mario Puzo Quotes about time

“Time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty!”

Variant: A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man
Source: 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.”

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

Mario Puzo book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

Mario Puzo: Trending quotes

“Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold.”

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

Variant: Revenge is a dish which taste best when served cold.
Source: 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.”

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

Mario Puzo Quotes

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

Source: The Godfather

“Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.”

“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.”

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: 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.”

“Never let anyone know what you are thinking.”

Source: The Last Don

“Power isn't everything… its the only thing.”

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Last Don

“Take the gun. Leave the cannoli.”

Source: The Godfather

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

“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”

“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 book The Family

Source: The Family

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

“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.”

“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.”

Source: The Godfather

“it's just business nothing personal…”

Source: The Godfather

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

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

“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.”

Source: The Last Don

“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.”

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

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

Source: The Godfather

“He should be careful. It's dangerous to be an honest man.”

“‎"But you're the toughest son of a b!&€# i've ever seen. You never let anybody get near you. You never let anybody know what you really think.”

Source: The Godfather

Mario Puzo book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

“Every man has but one destiny" Veto Corleone”

“Any man can turn traitor.”

“Tell my father I wish to be his son.”

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

“I have no such powers. If I did I would be more merciful than God, believe me.”

Source: The Godfather

“When they come… they come at what you love.”

Source: The Godfather

“Woman and children can afford to be careless, men can not"-Don Corleone”

Source: The Godfather

“Behind every great fortune there is a crime.”

Source: The Godfather