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

“The truth now. He was disappointed in human beings. He had seen too many betrayals, too many pitiful weaknesses, too much greed for money and fame. The falseness between lovers, husbands and wifes, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters”

“Every man has but one destiny”

“Michael: Barzini will set me up through somebody close... that, supposedly, I won't suspect.Hagen: Somebody like me.Michael: You're Irish, they won't trust you.Hagen: I'm German-American.Michael: To them that's Irish.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Santino, never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking.Never let them know what you have under your fingernails. I think your brain is goingsoft from all that comedy you play with that young girl. Stop it and pay attention tobusiness. Now get out of my sight.”