Mario Puzo Quotes

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

— Mario Puzo

Great men are not born great, they grow great ...

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

“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

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

“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

— 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

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

— Mario Puzo

“Never let anyone know what you are thinking.”

— Mario Puzo

“Friendship and money: oil and water.”

— Mario Puzo

“Even the strongest man needs friends.”

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

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

“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.”

— Mario Puzo

“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.”

— Mario Puzo

“Every man has but one destiny Veto Corleone”

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

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

— Mario Puzo

“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

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

— Mario Puzo

“The fact of the matter is that I wanted to hold a grudge in some funny kind of way.Against everybody.”

— Mario Puzo

“Freddie's face was anxious."Mike,you sure about Moe Greene selling?He never mentioned it me and he loves the business.I really don't think that he'll sell."
Michael said quietly,"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."
The words were said casually yet the effect was chilling.”

— Mario Puzo

“Your enemies always get strong on what you leave behind.”

— Mario Puzo

“Wasn't it true that Sometimes the greatest misfortunes brought unforseen rewards? -Don Corleone”

— Mario Puzo

“The Don considered a use of threats the most foolish kind of exposure; the unleashing of anger without forethought as the most dangerous indulgence. No one had ever heard the Don utter a naked threat, no one had ever seen him in an uncontrollable rage. It was unthinkable.”

— Mario Puzo

“For justice we must go on our knees to Don Corleone.”

— Mario Puzo

“He claimed that 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

“Preparing the communal evening meal sometimes caused arguments. Every village in Sicily had a different recipe for squid and eels, disagreed on what herbs should be disbarred from the tomato sauce. And whether sausages should ever be baked.”

— Mario Puzo

“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.”

— Mario Puzo

“You can't let other men impose their will on you or life's not worth living.”

— Mario Puzo

“Do not exercise power because it is easy to your hand. And do not get carried away with a certainty of victory when your intellect tells you there is even a hint of tragedy.”

— Mario Puzo

Tell the truth, all Sicilians prefer smelling the shit of their villages to the best perfumes in Paris. What am I doing here? I could have escaped to Brazil like some others. Ah, we love where we are born, we Sicilians, but Sicily does not love us.

— Mario Puzo

“He said to the cardinal, I'm a peasant, not instructed in the ways of heaven. But I have never broken my word. And you, a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, with all your holy garments and crosses of Jesus, lied to me like a heathen Moor. Your sacred office alone will not save your life.”

— Mario Puzo

It was presumptuous for one man to forgive another. That was the duty of God. For men to pretend such mercy was an idle pride and a lack of respect. He did not desire any such mercy for himself.

— Mario Puzo

“Did Jack Woltz have the balls to risk everything, to run the chance of losing all on a matter of principle, on a matter of honor; for revenge?”

— Mario Puzo

“Don had made a fewer mistakes and learned from every one of them”

— Mario Puzo

“Nino?" When Johnny didn't answer, the Don went on. "Friendship is everything. 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 friendships you wouldn't have to ask me to help.”

— Mario Puzo

“This place is full of shit. It's run by aliens from outer space. Sure, they make the food look Italian, they make it smell Italian, but it tastes like goo from Mars.”

— Mario Puzo

“But time erodes gratitude more quickly than it does beauty. Now Bonasera felt the sickness of a man faced with disaster.”

— Mario Puzo

“The victory of the Corleone Family was complete. During that same twenty-four-hour period Clemenza and Lampone turned loose their regimes and punished the infiltrators of the Corleone domains.”

— Mario Puzo

It was not necessary that he be your friend, it was not even important that you had no means with which to repay him. Only one thing was required. That you, you yourself, proclaim your friendship. And then, no matter how poor or powerless the supplicant, Don Corleone would take that man's troubles to his heart.

— Mario Puzo

“When Johnny didn't answer, the Don went on. Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family. Never forget that.”

— Mario Puzo

“Brasi left the room. Two of his men assisted the midwife and the baby was born, the mother was exhausted and went into a deep sleep. Brasi was summoned and Filomena, who had wrapped the newborn child in an extra blanket, extended the bundle to him and said, "If you're the father, take her. My work is finished." Brasi glared at her, malevolent, insanity stamped on his face. "Yes, I'm the father," he said. "But I don't want any of that race to live. Take it down to the basement and throw it into the furnace.”

— Mario Puzo

It pleased him to see the hurt look on her face, the tears springing into her eyes. She might be a daughter of the Great Don but she was his wife, she was his property now and he could treat her as he pleased. It made him feel powerful that one of the Corleones was his doormat.

— Mario Puzo

“Treachery can't be forgiven.”

— Mario Puzo

Not having to worry about money is almost like not having to worry about dying.

— Mario Puzo