Forgive. Forget. Life is full of misfortunes.
Mothers are like cops. They always believe the worst.
You let women dictate your actions and they are not competent in this world, though certainly they will be saints in heaven while we men burn in hell.
You lived like a fool and you have come to a fool’s end.
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.
She was the only person in the world who could make him act against his own nature.
Ah, men understand friendship more than we woman.
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.
Nothing was more calming, more conducive to pure reason, than the atmosphere of money.
A man’s first duty is to keep himself alive. Then comes what everyone calls honor.
Everyone is responsible for everything he does.
I believe in friendship and I’m willing to show my friendship first.
The world is what it is, and you are what you are.
He made no empty promises, nor the craven excuse that his hands were tied by more powerful forces in the world than himself.
Among reasonable men problems of business could always be solved.
None of us here want to see our children follow in our footsteps, it’s too hard a life.
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. Since Johnny’s father died, Mr. Corleone feels his responsibility even more deeply. As for trying you again, Mr. Corleone is much too sensitive. He never asks a second favor where he has been refused the first.
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.
The don knew that love is not a reliable emotion to matter how deep. Love does not ensure gratitude, does not ensure obedience, does not provide harmony in so difficult a world. No one understood this better than Don Clericuzio. To inspire true love, one also had to be feared. Love alone was contemptible, it was nothing if it did not also include trust and obedience. What good was love to him if it did not acknowledge his rule?
People change, they have faulty memories, gratitude for past generosities fades.