“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

— Smedley D. Butler , book War Is a Racket

War is a racket (1935)

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Smedley D. Butler 18

United States Marine Corps General, 2 time Medal of Honor r… 1881–1940

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“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

Smedley D. Butler (1881–1940) United States Marine Corps General, 2 time Medal of Honor recipient and activist

From a speech (1933)

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Smedley D. Butler (1881–1940) United States Marine Corps General, 2 time Medal of Honor recipient and activist

War is a racket (1935)
Source: Common Sense, Vol. 4, No. 11 (November, 1935), p. 8. Quoted in 'I Might Have Given Al Capone a Few Hints' https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/10/opinion/l-i-might-have-given-al-capone-a-few-hints-023587.html, The New York Times, September 10, 1987.

“I look back on my years as a Wall Street lawyer as time spent in a foreign country.”

Susan Cain (1968) self-help writer

"The quiet strength of the introvert," The Chicago Tribune, February 20, 2012.

“I calculated the amount of time I spent with my father during my entire life… the total amount of time I had with him, if you add up the hours, was about two months. My father was a busy man… we had very few opportunities to really sit down and talk as father and son.”

Reza Pahlavi (1960) Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran

As quoted in Marvin Zonis (1991), Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, p. 57.
Attributed

“My four years of high school were spent locked up inside “el campo.” I became a voracious reader and television-watcher, keeping to myself at such alarming extremes that I became invisible. My invisibility provided the perfect protection against harm of any sort. I walked to and from school past the gangsters as silently as a breeze, so disassociated from their tattoos and lingo that even they couldn't find a place for me in their lines of vision.”

Rigoberto González (1970) American writer

Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa (2006)

“I say this about everything: when I was on Neighbours I said, 'These are the best years of my life!' When I was filming 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' I said, 'These are the best months of my life!'”

Margot Robbie (1990) Australian actress

I always think I'm having the best time ever, and that I'll never have so much fun again.

Nojan Aminosharei, “There's something about Margot” https://www.elle.com.au/culture/theres-something-about-margot-7683, Elle, (Mar 25, 2014).

“Tool is not Slayer. I went to art school. I spent three years in the military. There's more to me than throwing devil horns.”

Maynard James Keenan (1964) musician

Aidin Vaziri (January 2, 2009) "Maynard James Keenan: Hard rocker, winemaker. 5 Questions.", San Francisco Chronicle, p. E3.

“Do I do business with Canadian racketeers? I don't even know what street Canada is on.”

Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster

As quoted in Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada (2009) by Stephen Schneider, chapter Five, p. 206 http://books.google.bg/books?id=ZO8jKSn25DAC&printsec=frontcover&hl=bg

“I spent a lot of my life afraid as a kid, even throughout high school.”

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

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“I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man.”

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As quoted in How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) by Dale Carnegie, p. 26

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

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