He was a degenerate gambler. That is, a man who gambled simply to gamble and must lose. As a hero who goes to war must die. Show me a gambler and I'll show you a loser, show me a hero and I'll show you a corpse.

A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.

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.

Some honorable men spend their whole life preparing for a supreme act of treachery

Oh, what a wicked world it is that drives a man to sin.

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

Power wears out those who do not have it.