Best Quotes From The Godfather Trilogy

Here is our list from one of the most quotable movies of all time, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Trilogy.

1. The Godfather (1972)

Based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name, the story focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family, which is headed by Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando).

Michael Corleone: When Johnny was first starting out, he was signed to this personal services contract with a big band leader. And as his career got better and better, he wanted to get out of it. Now, Johnny is my father’s godson. And my father went to see this band leader. And offered him ten thousand dollars to let Johnny go, but the band leader said no. So the next day my father went to see him, only this time with Luca Brasi. And within an hour, he signed a release for a certified check of one thousand dollars.
Kay Adams: How did he do that?
Michael Corleone: My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Kay Adams: What was that?
Michael Corleone: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract. That’s a true story. That’s my family, Kay. It’s not me.

Don Corleone: [to Sonny] Never tell anybody outside the family what you’re thinking again.

Sonny: [referring to Brasi’s bulletproof vest with a fish inside] What the hell is this?
Clemenza: It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes

Clemenza: Sonny’s running wild. He’s thinking of going to the mattresses already.

Clemenza: [to Rocco who has killed Paulie in the car] Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

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

Calo: [after Michael notices Apollonia for the first time, in Italian] In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.

Michael Corleone: [teaching Apollonia to drive, in Italian]  It’s safer to teach you English!
Apollonia: [in Italian and English] I know English. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday.

Don Corleone: [at the meeting with the Five Families] You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me?

Michael Corleone: I’m working for my father now, Kay. He’s been sick. Very sick.
Kay Adams: But you’re not like him, Michael. I thought you weren’t going to become a man like your father. That’s what you told me.
Michael Corleone: My father is no different than any other powerful man. Any man who is responsible for other people. Like a senator or a president.
Kay Adams: You know how naive you sound?
Michael Corleone: Why?
Kay Adams: Senators and presidents don’t have men killed.
Michael Corleone: Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?

Michael Corleone: Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever.

Don Corleone: [to Michael] Now, Listen. Whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, he’s the traitor. Don’t forget that.

Michael Corleone: [to Carlo] Only don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence. Makes me very angry.

2. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

Sequel and prequel in which the story is presented in parallel dramas, where one continues the story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone crime family, and the prequel covers the journey of his father, young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro), from his Sicilian childhood to the founding of his family enterprise as an immigrant in New York City.

Vito Corleone: I’m not interested in things that don’t concern me.

Michael Corleone: I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!

Vito Corleone: I’ll make an offer he don’t refuse. Don’t worry.

Tom Hagen: It would be like trying to kill the President. There’s no way we can get to him.
Michael Corleone: Tom, you surprise me. If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it’s that you can kill anyone.

Michael Corleone: I don’t feel I have to wipe everybody out, Tom. Just my enemies, that’s all.

3. The Godfather Part III (1990)

Final installment of trilogy, where an aging Don Michael Corleone seeks to legitimize his family’s business and remove himself from the violent underworld, while taking his nephew Vincent Mancini (Andy García) under his wing.

Michael Corleone: Friendship and money. Oil and water.

Archbishop Gilday: It seems that, in today’s world, the power to absolve debt is greater than the power of forgiveness.

Michael Corleone: The only wealth in this world is children. More than all the money and power on earth.

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

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

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

Michael Corleone: [in Italian] Your enemies always get strong on what you leave behind.

Don Altobello: The richest man is the one with the most powerful friends.

Don Lucchesi: Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.

Michael Corleone: [making his confession] I betrayed my wife.
Cardinal Lamberto: Go on, my son.
Michael Corleone: I betrayed myself. I killed men. And I ordered men to be killed.
Cardinal Lamberto: Go on, my son. Go on.
Michael Corleone: It’s useless.
Cardinal Lamberto: Go on, my son.
Michael Corleone: I killed, I ordered the death of my brother. He injured me. I killed my mother’s son. I killed my father’s son.
Cardinal Lamberto: [as Michael breaks down] Your sins are terrible, and it is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know that you don’t believe that. You will not change.

Michael Corleone: All my life I’ve kept trying to go up in society. To where everything higher up was legal, straight. But the higher I go, the more crooked it becomes. Where the hell does it end?

Mary Corleone: I’ll always love you.
Vincent Mancini: Love somebody else.

Calo: Power wears out those who don’t have it.