Godfather quotes

A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults. – Don Vito Corleone

Leave the gun, take the cannoli. – Peter Clemenza

I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse. – Don Vito Corleone

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. – Michael Corleone

It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business. – Michael Corleone

Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family. – Michael Corleone

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. – Don Vito Corleone

A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. – Don Vito Corleone

We’re bigger than U.S. Steel. – Carlo Rizzi

Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he’s refused the first, understood? – Tom Hagen

Don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry. – Michael Corleone

Great men are not born great, they grow great. – Mario Puzo

Every man has one destiny. – Michael Corleone

Power wears out those who do not have it. – Emilio Barzini

Friendship and loyalty is more valuable than money. – Don Vito Corleone

Ambition can be as dangerous as a loaded gun. – Michael Corleone

It’s not enough to just wear a suit. You need to wear it like you mean it. – Sonny Corleone

Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold. – Don Vito Corleone

A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns. – Don Vito Corleone

My father taught me many things here — he taught me in this room. He taught me — keep your friends close but your enemies closer. – Michael Corleone

In America, they’ve got you on what’s called the publicly owned airwaves. They don’t own them, they just count them on a ledger in a dusty vault. They pick their favorites on a whim; the rest are just out of luck. – Michael Corleone

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 born with it, you know what it is. It hushes, it whispers, it’s alive. It tells you what you are. Where’ve you had it? – Michael Corleone

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. – Michael Corleone

Don’t be afraid, Carlo. Come on, you think I’d make my sister a widow? I’m godfather to your son, Carlo. – Michael Corleone

You touch my sister again, I’ll kill you. – Michael Corleone

Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment. – Don Vito Corleone

I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men. – Michael Corleone

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. – Bonasera

I never wanted this for you. I work my whole life, I don’t apologize, to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool dancing on the string held by all of those big shots. That’s my life, I don’t apologize for that. – Don Vito Corleone

I am not a peasant, I am a Corleone! – Michael Corleone

When they come, they’ll come at what you love. – Michael Corleone

Never let anyone know what you are thinking. – Michael Corleone

You have to be a man before you can be a gangster. – Sonny Corleone

The higher I go, the crookeder it becomes. – Michael Corleone

I worked my whole life, I don’t apologize to take care of my family. – Don Vito Corleone

Time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty. – Michael Corleone

I don’t want to enlist. I want to stay in the Navy, Uncle Mike. Enlistments up in a couple of months. All the guys I know are being drafted. They didn’t get in the Navy to fight. – Anthony Corleone

Your enemies always get strong on what you leave behind. – Hyman Roth

Women and children can be careless, but not men. – Michael Corleone

The lawyer with the briefcase can steal more money than the man with the gun. – Michael Corleone

I didn’t squawk like a sissy, I did it. – Freddie Corleone

Behind every successful fortune, there is a crime. – Vincenzo Pentangeli

This is the business we have chosen. – Hyman Roth

Friends and money, oil and water. – Michael Corleone

Times have changed, and we have to change with them. – Michael Corleone

What’s the matter? You sit around here all day with your thumb up your big fat ass and do nothin’? – Sonny Corleone

Taking care of your family is a man’s job. – Michael Corleone

Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you do anything you’re not capable of. – Michael Corleone

In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women. – Tony Montana

Give them an offer they can’t refuse. – Don Vito Corleone