“That's like bringing a guy up from the minors to pitch the World Series.”

“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.”

“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.”

“You cannot say 'no' to the people you love, not often. That's the secret. And then when you do, it has to sound like a 'yes'. Or you have to make them say 'no.' You have to take time and trouble.”

“No, that's not possible," Michael said. "Killed, yes; jail, no.”

“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.”

“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.”