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Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (August 4, 1900 – March 30, 2002), or Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and colloquially known as The Queen Mum, was Queen consort of George VI of the United Kingdom (1936–1952) and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and grandmother of Charles III.

Quotes

 * The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave.
 * In a public declaration in the early years of World War II. Sourced from the British Royal Family History website.

 * I am glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye.
 * After the Luftwaffe bombed the Buckingham Palace whilst the King and Queen were in residence on 13 September 1940.

 * Tinkety tonk old fruit, and down with the Nazis.
 * A valediction in a letter to her niece in 1940.

Queen Elizabeth [The Queen Mother]: I dislike this new socialist party of Woy's [sic]. Host: They're called the Social Democrats, ma'am. Queen Elizabeth: Yes. Well, you don't change socialist just by leaving ist off the end. I say, it's a cheat to start something called the Social Party. I liked the old Labour Party. The best thing is a good old Tory government with a strong Labour opposition. Self: "The Desert", ma'am? Are you sure it wasn't called "The Waste Land? Queen Elizabeth: That's it. I'm afraid we all giggled. Such a gloomy man, looked as though he worked in a bank, and we didn't understand a word. Self: I believe he did once work in a bank.
 * At the dinner table, the talk turned to politics. It was in the days before the 'Gang of Four' had allied themselves to the Liberal Party [early 1981].
 * Queen Elizabeth: I thought the girls . . . you see, they were marooned in Windsor Castle for most of the war, and I was not sure that they were having a very good education and kind Sachie and Osbert [Sitwell] said they would arrange a poetry evening for us. Such an embarrassment. Osbert was wonderful, as you would expect, and Edith, of course, but then we had this rather lugubrious man in a suit, and he read a poem . . . I think it was called "The Desert". And first the girls got the giggles, and then I did and then even the King.
 * A.N. Wilson "Miracle-Worker in the Charm School", The Spectator (20 June 1990), p. 20
 * The poet, who "did once work in a bank", was T.S. Eliot. Wilson's indiscretion gained considerable coverage in the international media at the time.

 * Never trust them, never trust them. They can't be trusted.
 * On the Germans, to Woodrow Wyatt (16 November 1991), as quoted in The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume Two (2000) ed. Sarah Curtis, p. 608

 * He is the only man, since my dear husband died, to have had the effrontery to kiss me on the lips.”
 * The Queen Mother said about President Jimmy Carter, as reported in the British newspapers.

 * We'd have to go self-service.
 * After a Tory minister advised her not to employ homosexuals.

 * We loved him.
 * On the Duke of Windsor, previously Edward VIII, as quoted by the Duke of Grafton in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books

 * Whilst playing cards, Elizabeth: How are you getting on? You don't look very happy. Lord Salisbury: Oh, Ma'am, I've been left with a horrible queen. Elizabeth: I don't think that's a very good of way of putting it, do you?
 * As quoted by Lord Home of the Hirsel in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books

 * Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?
 * On returning a toilet roll to a demonstrator who had thrown it at her, as quoted by Sir Peter Ustinov in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books

 * But I love communists!
 * On being warned that a functionary to whom she was about to be introduced was a communist, as quoted by the Duchess of Grafton in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books

 * Wouldn't it be terrible if you'd spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you didn't want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you you'd say 'Oh my god, I could have got so drunk last night!' That's the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you'll be run over by a big red bus.
 * As quoted by Michael Parker, as cited in William Shawcross Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography (2009)

 * That's mine!
 * Said to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, when she realised he had taken her glass of wine just as she prepared to propose a toast during a lunch to celebrate her 100th birthday.

 * Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash.
 * On hearing that Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma had been buried at sea, as quoted in The Straits Times [Singapore] (7 August 2000)

 * I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out.
 * Murmured to Sir Noël Coward (who was gay) at a gala. While she mounted a staircase lined with Guards, she noticed Coward's eyes flicker momentarily over the soldiers; as quoted by Thomas Blaikie in You look awfully like the Queen: Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor (2002)

 * I'll polish it off myself.
 * On the fate of a gift of a nebuchadnezzar of champagne (20 bottles' worth) even if her family didn't come for the holidays.
 * Quoted by Graham Taylor in Elizabeth: The Woman and the Queen (2002)

Quotes about Bowes-Lyon

 * That is the most dangerous woman in Europe.
 * Usually attributed to either Hitler or Goebbels, but, according to official biographer William Shawcross, apocryphal.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon


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Talk:Animal Farm

Animal Farm online
external link removed, because (from the website): "Webmaster's Note, 5/10/2007 - We have been informed by the rights holder that this work is still copyrighted in our territory. So we have removed it. You may still read our original summary though to the left."

24.234.139.88 00:48, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Change
to whoever changed 'Donkey' to 'democrat', you are an idiot. please read the book. you obviously don't understand it if you have. I fixed it. I am not a democrat. You will have a special place in hell, if it exists. please report to room 101.
 * (in reference to edits by IP 99.34.223.31)

title: Talk:Animal Farm


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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6 1806 – June 29 1861) was an English poet and the wife of Robert Browning.

Quotes

 * Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.
 * To George Sand, A Desire (1844).

 * Or from Browning some "Pomegranate," which, if cut deep down the middle, shows a heart within blood-tinctured of a veined humanity.
 * Lady Geraldine's Courtship, st. 41 (1844).

 * Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years? They are leaning their young heads against their mothers— And that cannot stop their tears.
 * The Cry of the Children, st. 1 (1844).

 * I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless.
 * Grief, l. 1 (1844).

 * Therefore to this dog will I, Tenderly not scornfully, Render praise and favor: With my hand upon his head, Is my benediction said Therefore and for ever.
 * To Flush, My Dog, st. 14 (1844).

 * "Yes," I answered you last night; "No," this morning, Sir, I say. Colours seen by candlelight, Will not look the same by day.
 * The Lady's Yes, st. 1 (1844).

 * Unless you can muse in a crowd all day On the absent face that fixed you; Unless you can love, as the angels may, With the breadth of heaven betwixt you; Unless you can dream that his faith is fast, Through behoving and unbehoving; Unless you can die when the dream is past — Oh, never call it loving!
 * A Woman's Shortcomings, st. 5 (1850).

 * What was he doing, the great god Pan, Down in the reeds by the river? Spreading ruin and scattering ban, Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat, And breaking the golden lilies afloat With the dragon-fly on the river.
 * A Musical Instrument, st. 1 (1860).

 * The cypress stood up like a church That night we felt our love would hold, And saintly moonlight seemed to search And wash the whole world clean as gold; The olives crystallized the vales' Broad slopes until the hills grew strong: The fireflies and the nightingales Throbbed each to either, flame and song. The nightingales, the nightingales.
 * Bianca Among the Nightingales, st. 1 (1862).

 * But so fair, She takes the breath of men away Who gaze upon her unaware.
 * Bianca Among the Nightingales, st. 12 (1862).

 * Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet, From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low, Lest I should fear, and fall, and miss Thee so, Who art not missed by any that entreat.
 * Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 247.

 * And I said in underbreath — All our life is mixed with death, — And who knoweth which is best? And I smiled to think God's greatness Flowed around our incompleteness, — Round our restlessness, His rest.
 * Rhyme of the Duchess; reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 514.

 * I cannot speak In happy tones; the tear drops on my cheek Show I am sad; But I can speak Of grace to suffer with submission meek, Until made glad. I cannot feel That all is well, when dark'ning clouds conceal The shining sun; But then I know God lives and loves; and say, since it is so, "Thy will be done."
 * Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 514.

 * Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.
 * Toll Slowly; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * But since he had The genius to be loved, why let him have The justice to be honoured in his grave.
 * Crowned and Buried, xxvii reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * By thunders of white silence.
 * Hiram Powers's Greek Slave; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

 * And that dismal cry rose slowly And sank slowly through the air, Full of spirit's melancholy  And eternity's despair; And they heard the words it said,— "Pan is dead! great Pan is dead! Pan, Pan is dead!"
 * The Dead Pan; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)..

 * She has seen the mystery hid Under Egypt's pyramid: By those eyelids pale and close Now she knows what Rhamses knows.
 * Little Mattie, Stanza ii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

A Vision of Poets (1844)

 * There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb The crowns o’ the world; oh, eyes sublime With tears and laughter for all time!

 * And Chaucer, with his infantine Familiar clasp of things divine.

 * And Marlowe, Webster, Fletcher, Ben, Whose fire-hearts sowed our furrows when The world was worthy of such men.

 * Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

 * Full text online

 * "Guess now who holds thee?"—"Death," I said. But there The silver answer rang—"Not Death, but Love."
 * No. I

 * Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor, Most gracious singer of high poems! where The dancers will break footing, from the care Of watching up thy pregnant lips for more.
 * No. IV

 * Hush, call no echo up in further proof Of desolation! there's a voice within That weeps . . . as thou must sing . . . alone, aloof.
 * No. IV

 * Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforward in thy shadow.
 * No. VI

 * If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say "I love her for her smile —her look —her way Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" - For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,— A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!  But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.
 * No. XIV

 * When our two souls stand up erect and strong, Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher, Until the lengthening wings break into fire At either curvèd point, — what bitter wrong Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented?
 * No. XXII

 * God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.
 * No. XXIV

 * Because God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.
 * No. XXVI

 * Instruct me how to thank thee! Oh, to shoot My soul's full meaning into future years, That they should lend it utterance, and salute Love that endures, from life that disappears!
 * No. LXI

 * I seek no copy now of life's first half: Leave here the pages with long musing curled, And write me new my future's epigraph, New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!
 * No. LXII

 * How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
 * No. LXIII

 * Here's ivy! — take them, as I used to do Thy flowers, and keep them where they shall not pine. Instruct thine eyes to keep their colours true, And tell thy soul, their roots are left in mine.
 * No. LXIV

Aurora Leigh (1857)

 * Of writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others' uses, will write now for mine,— Will write my story for my better self, As when you paint your portrait for a friend, Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it Long after he has ceased to love you, just To hold together what he was and is.
 * Bk. I, l. 1-8.

 * Life, struck sharp on death, Makes awful lightning. His last word was, 'Love–' 'Love, my child, love, love!'–(then he had done with grief) 'Love, my child.' Ere I answered he was gone, And none was left to love in all the world.
 * Bk. I, l. 210-214.

 * Dreams of doing good For good-for-nothing people.
 * Book II.

 * The beautiful seems right By force of Beauty, and the feeble wrong Because of weakness.
 * Book II.

 * Every wish Is like a prayer—with God.
 * Book II.

 * If I married him, I would not dare to call my soul my own, Which so he had bought and paid for: every thought And every heart-beat down there in the bill,– Not one found honestly deductible From any use that pleased him!
 * Bk. II, l. 785-790.

 * God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, A gauntlet with a gift in't.
 * Bk. II, l. 952-954.

 * Good critics, who have stamped out poets' hope, Good statesmen, who pulled ruin on the state, Good patriots, who for a theory risked a cause.
 * Book IV.

 * That he, in his developed manhood, stood A little sunburnt by the glare of life; While I . . it seemed no sun had shone on me.
 * Bk. IV, l. 1139-1141.

 * Whoso loves Believes the impossible.
 * Book V.

 * The growing drama has outgrown such toys Of simulated stature, face, and speech: It also peradventure may outgrow The simulation of the painted scene, Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume, And take for a worthier stage the soul itself, Its shifting fancies and celestial lights, With all its grand orchestral silences To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds.
 * Book V.

 * Nay, if there's room for poets in the world A little overgrown, (I think there is) Their sole work is to represent the age, Their age, not Charlemagne's, — this live, throbbing age, That brawls, cheats, maddens, calculates, aspires, And spends more passion, more heroic heat, Betwixt the mirrors of its drawing-rooms, Than Roland with his knights, at Roncesvalles.
 * Bk. V, l. 200-207.

 * Since when was genius found respectable?
 * Bk. VI, l. 275.

 * Man, the two-fold creature, apprehends The two-fold manner, in and outwardly, And nothing in the world comes single to him. A mere itself, — cup, column, or candlestick, All patterns of what shall be in the Mount; The whole temporal show related royally, And build up to eterne significance Through the open arms of God.
 * Bk. VII, l. 801-808.

 * And truly, I reiterate, . . nothing's small! No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee, But finds some coupling with the spinning stars; No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere; No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim: And, — glancing on my own thin, veined wrist, — In such a little tremour of the blood The whole strong clamour of a vehement soul Doth utter itself distinct. Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries, And daub their natural faces unaware More and more, from the first similitude.
 * Bk. VII, l. 812-826.

De Profundis (1862)

 * "De Profundis" (1862) Full text online

 * The face, which, duly as the sun, Rose up for me with life begun, To mark all bright hours of the day With hourly love, is dimmed away — And yet my days go on, go on.
 * St. 1.

 * The heart which, like a staff, was one For mine to lean and rest upon, The strongest on the longest day With steadfast love, is caught away, And yet my days go on, go on. And cold before my summer's done, And deaf in Nature's general tune, And fallen too low for special fear, And here, with hope no longer here, While the tears drop, my days go on.
 * St. 3 - 4.

 * By anguish which made pale the sun, I hear Him charge his saints that none Among his creatures anywhere Blaspheme against Him with despair, However darkly days go on.
 * St. 19.

 * Take from my head the thorn-wreath brown! No mortal grief deserves that crown. O supreme Love, chief misery, The sharp regalia are for Thee Whose days eternally go on! For us, — whatever's undergone, Thou knowest, willest what is done, Grief may be joy misunderstood; Only the Good discerns the good. I trust Thee while my days go on.'
 * St. 20-21.

 * Whatever's lost, it first was won; We will not struggle nor impugn. Perhaps the cup was broken here, That Heaven's new wine might show more clear. I praise Thee while my days go on.
 * St. 22.

 * I praise Thee while my days go on; I love Thee while my days go on: Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost, With emptied arms and treasure lost, I thank Thee while my days go on. And having in thy life-depth thrown Being and suffering (which are one), As a child drops his pebble small Down some deep well, and hears it fall Smiling — so I. THY DAYS GO ON.
 * St. 23 -24.

Quotes about Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 * Feminist literary critics have shown how in the 19th century women writers began to acknowledge women as their muses and their role models...Elizabeth Barrett Browning admired the work of George Sand and Mme. de Staël, while her work, in its turn, was an inspiration to Emily Dickinson.,,all of the American nineteenth-century woman's rights leaders considered Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh an inspiration. The list could be indefinitely extended to show the almost desperate search of writing women for authoritative female predecessors.
 * Gerda Lerner The Creation of Feminist Consciousness (1993)

 * Anger has always played a role in poetry...You can find powerful anger in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poems on slavery and child labor. In her anti-slavery poem “A Curse for a Nation,” she has an angel explaining that “A curse from the lips of womanhood / Is very salt, and bitter, and good.” Barrett Browning was roundly condemned in her own time for writing about politics.
 * Alicia Ostriker Interview

 * Life Loves/to change, wrote poet John Masefield,/in the cobbled town of Ledbury, Herefordshire,/Elizabeth Barrett Browning's town too./.../I felt drunk on general coziness.../thinking of Elizabeth,/whose "father never spoke to her again," once she/had a child (what was his problem?),/and Masefield, who suffered intense seasickness/yet wrote about going down to the sea/as if it were his favorite act/.../Life loves to change-but some of us want to/stay.
 * Naomi Shihab Nye Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018)

 * Emily Dickinson was always stirred by the existences of women like George Eliot or Elizabeth Barrett, who possessed strength of mind, articulateness, and energy. (She once characterized Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale as "holy"-one suspects she merely meant, "great.")
 * Adrienne Rich On Lies, Secrets and Silence (1979)

title: Elizabeth Barrett Browning


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Marcus Junius Brutus

Marcus Junius Brutus Caepio (85 BC – 42 BC), or simply Brutus, was a Roman senator of the late Roman Republic. He was one of Julius Caesar's assassins.

Quotes

 * The Xanthians, suspecting my kindness, have made their country the grave of their despair; the Patareans, trusting themselves to me, enjoy in all points their former liberty; it is in your power to choose the judgment of the Patareans or the fortune of the Xanthians.
 * As quoted in "Marcus Brutus" in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by John Dryden

 * Your councils be long, your doings be slow, consider the end.
 * As quoted in "Marcus Brutus" in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by John Dryden

 * Yes, indeed, we must fly, but not with our feet, but with our hands..
 * As quoted in "Marcus Brutus" in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by John Dryden. Said supporting suicide to escape when someone said they had to escape.

About

 * Farewell, good Strato. — Caesar now be still: I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.
 * William Shakespeare, depicting the death of Brutus in Julius Caesar, V. v

title: Marcus Junius Brutus


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User:Muriel Holstein

Hello everyone! I'm mainly active in Wikipedia, but i'm trying to contribute here too. You can find my page here.

title: User:Muriel Holstein


text:
Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (29 September 106 BC – 29 September 48 BC), generally referred to in English as Pompey the Great, was a Roman general and politician.

Life of Pompey

 * Quotes of Pompey, as portrayed in Life of Pompey by Plutarch

 * Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons!
 * “Οὐ παύσεσθε,” εἶπεν, “ἡμῖν ὑπεζωσμένοις ξίφη νόμους ἀναγινώσκοντες;” Plutarch, Lives. Pompey 10.3.2. To the Mamertines in Messana, complaining about Pompey's legal jurisdiction after their city was retaken during the civil warfare. Lit.: "'Will you not give up,' he said, 'reading laws to us men girt with swords?'"

 * More people worship the rising than the setting sun.
 * Spoken by a young Pompey to the Dictator Sulla to get Sulla to award him a triumph

 * To sail is necessary, to live is not.
 * The needs of the state (to supply their starving people with grain brought by ship) outweigh the needs of the individual, such as a sailor who would prefer not to risk death by leaving port in a violent storm to pick up a grain shipment.

Quotes about Pompey

 * Sorted alphabetically by author or source

 * Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow, And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!
 * Joseph Addison, in Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act II, sc. 1

Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, Your infants in your arms, and there have sat The livelong day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome: And when you saw his chariot but appear, Have you not made an universal shout, That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, To hear the replication of your sounds Made in her concave shores? And do you now put on your best attire? And do you now cull out a holiday? And do you now strew flowers in his way That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone! Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Pray to the gods to intermit the plague That needs must light on this ingratitude.
 * O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
 * William Shakespeare, in Julius Cæsar (1599); Marullus in Act I, sc. 1
 * And besides, he was what? 25? He couldn't stand for a Praetorship even if he wanted to. But like I say, I don't care. I'm fine with it. I'm happy for him. Hooray for Pompey. Pompey the Great.
 * Mike Duncan describing Crassus's view of Pompey in The History of Rome Episode 35- Crassus and Pompey

title: Pompey


text:
The Godfather

The Godfather is a 1972 film about a Mafia crime family and the outbreak of a New York City gang war in the late 1940s.
 * Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Written by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's novel.

An offer you can't refuse.

Vito Corleone

 * [to Bonasera] I want you to use all your powers, and all your skills. I don't want his mother to see him this way. [pulls sheet to reveal Sonny's bullet-ridden body] Look how they massacred my boy.
 * I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.

Peter Clemenza

 * [to Rocco Lampone, after Rocco kills Paulie Gatto] Leave the gun. Take the Cannoli.

Dialogue

 * Amerigo Bonasera: I believe in America. America has made my fortune, and I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend, not an Italian. She went to the movies with him. She stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago he took her for a drive, with another boy friend. They made her drink whiskey and then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor, so they beat her like an animal. When I went to the hospital her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain, but I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life. A beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again. [sobs] Sorry. I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison and suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool, and those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, "For justice, we must go to Don Corleone."
 * Don Vito Corleone: Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to me first?
 * Bonasera: What do you want of me? Tell me anything, but do what I beg you to do.
 * Vito: What is that?
 * Bonasera: [whispering in Vito's ear] I want them dead.
 * Vito: That I can't do.
 * Bonasera: I will give you anything you ask.
 * Vito: We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you ever came to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship and, uh, you were afraid to be in my debt.
 * Bonasera: I didn't want to get into trouble.
 * Vito: I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, you made a good living, the police protected you, and there were courts of law. You didn't need a friend like me. But, now you come to me, and you say: "Don Corleone, give me justice." But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask me to do murder for money.
 * Bonasera: I ask for justice.
 * Vito: That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.
 * Bonasera: Let them suffer then, as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
 * Vito: Bonasera, Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then that scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.
 * Bonasera: Be my friend, Godfather. [kisses Vito's hand]
 * Vito: Good. Someday—and that day may never come—I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day.
 * Bonasera: Grazie, Godfather.
 * Vito: Prego. [Bonasera leaves, and Don Corleone turns to Tom] Give this to, uh, Clemenza. I want reliable people, people who aren't going to be carried away. After all, we're not murderers, in spite of what this undertaker thinks.

 * Michael Corleone: Well, when Johnny was first starting out, he was signed to this personal service 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 he offered him $10,000 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 for $1,000.
 * Kay: How'd he do that?
 * Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
 * Kay: What was that?
 * Michael: 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.

 * Johnny Fontane: A month ago, he [Woltz] bought the movie rights to this book, a best-seller, and the main character, it's a guy just like me. I, uh, I wouldn't even have to act, just be myself. [choking up] Oh, Godfather, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.
 * Don Vito Corleone: [shaking Johnny] You can act like a man! [He slaps Johnny.] What's the matter with you? Is this how you turned out, a Hollywood finocchio that cries like a woman? "Eheheh! What can I do? What can I do?" What is that nonsense? Ridiculous. You spend time with your family?
 * Johnny: Sure I do.
 * Vito: Good, because a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man. Come here. You look terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest a while, and in a month from now, this Hollywood bigshot's gonna give you what you want.
 * Johnny: It's too late, they start shooting in a week.
 * Vito: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. Now, you just go outside and enjoy yourself, and, uh, forget about all this nonsense. I want you, I want you to leave it all to me.
 * The line in bold is ranked #2 in American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations.

 * Vito Corleone: [to Sollozzo] I must say no to you, and I'll give you my reasons. It's true, I have a lot of friends in politics, but they wouldn't be friendly very long if they knew my business was drugs instead of gambling, which they regard as a – a harmless vice. But drugs is a dirty business. It makes, it doesn't make any difference to me what a man does for a living, understand. But your business is, uh, a little dangerous.
 * Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo: If you're worried about security for your million, the Tattaglias will guarantee it.
 * Santino "Sonny" Corleone: Oh, you're telling me that the Tattaglias guarantee our investment?
 * Vito: Wait a minute. I have a sentimental weakness for my children, and I spoil them, as you can see. They talk when they should listen. But anyway, Signor Sollozzo, my "no" is final and I wish to congratulate you on your new business. I know you'll do very well, and good luck to you, especially since your interests don't conflict with mine. Thank you. [Sollozzo leaves] Santino, come here. What's the matter with you? I think your brain's going soft from all that comedy you're playing with that young girl. Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again.

 * Virgil "the Turk" Sollozzo: Your boss is dead. I know you're not in the muscle-end of the family, Tom, so I don't want you to be scared. I want you to help the Corleones, and I want you to help me. [hands Tom a drink.] Yeah, we got him outside his office just about an hour after we picked you up. Drink it. So now it's up to you to make the peace between me and Sonny. Sonny was hot for my idea, wasn't he? And you knew it was the right thing to do.
 * Tom Hagen: Sonny'll come after you with everything he's got.
 * Sollozzo: That'll be his first reaction, sure. That's why you gotta talk some sense into him. The Tattaglia family is behind me with all their people. The other New York families will go along with anything that will prevent a full-scale war. Let's face it, Tom, and all due respect, the Don, rest in peace, was slipping. Ten years ago, could I have gotten to him? Well, now, he's dead. He's dead, Tom, and nothing can bring him back, so you gotta talk to Sonny. You gotta talk to the caporegimes, that Tessio and that fat Clemenza. It's good business, Tom.
 * Tom: I'll try, but even Sonny won't be able to call off Luca Brasi.
 * Sollozzo: Yeah, well, let me worry about Luca. You just talk to Sonny and the other two kids.
 * Tom: I'll do my best.
 * Sollozzo: Good. Now, you can go. I don't like violence, Tom. I'm a business man. Blood is a big expense. [receives news from an arriving car] He's still alive. They hit him with five shots, and he's still alive! Well, that's bad luck for me, and bad luck for you if you don't make that deal!

 * [Sonny opens a package to find two fish wrapped in Luca's bulletproof vest.]
 * Santino "Sonny" Corleone: What the hell is this?
 * Salvatore Tessio: It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.
 * Note: The line in bold was nominated for the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations.

 * [Police cars pull up outside the hospital where Michael is standing; he is grabbed by an officer and searched]
 * Officer Phil: Now hold still.
 * [Police Captain McCluskey leaves his car and approaches Michael angrily]
 * McCluskey: I thought I got all you guinea hoods locked up! What the hell are you doing here?
 * Michael: What happened to the men who were guarding my father, Captain?
 * McCluskey: Why, you little punk! What the hell are you doing, telling me my business? I pulled them guys off of here! Now you get outta here, and stay away from this hospital!
 * Michael: I'm not moving until you put some guards around my father's room.
 * McCluskey: Phil, take him in!
 * Officer Phil: The kid's clean, Captain! He's a war hero! He's never been busted for the rackets--
 * McCluskey: Goddamn it, I said take him in!
 * Michael: What's the Turk paying you to set up my father, Captain?
 * McCluskey: [enraged] Take a hold of him! Stand him up! Stand him up straight!
 * [McCluskey punches Michael, breaking his jaw]

 * Tom Hagen: This is business, not personal!
 * Santino "Sonny" Corleone: They shot my father. It's business, your ass!
 * Tom: Even shooting your father was business, not personal, Sonny!

 * Michael Corleone: They wanna have a meeting with me, right? It will be me, McCluskey and Sollozzo. Let's set the meeting. Get our informers to find out where it's gonna be held. Now, we insist it's a public place: a bar, a restaurant, some place where there's people so I feel safe. They're gonna search me when I first meet them, right? So I can't have a weapon on me then. But if Clemenza can figure a way, to have a weapon planted there for me, then I'll kill 'em both.
 * Santino "Sonny" Corleone: [laughing, along with the others] Hey, what are ya gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the family business huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little bit? Hah? What do you think this is, the Army where you shoot 'em a mile away? You've gotta get up close like this and bada-bing! You blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. [He kisses Michael's head.] You're taking this very personal.
 * Michael: Where does it say that you can't kill a cop? I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about a dishonest cop and a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

 * [committing to kill Captain McCluskey and Sollozzo, Michael seeks help from Peter Clemenza]
 * Peter Clemenza: [shows Michael a revolver] This is as cold as they come, impossible to trace, so you don't worry about prints, Mike. I put a special tape on the trigger and the butt. Here, try it. [Michael takes the revolver] What'sa matter? The trigger too tight?
 * Michael Corleone: No. [He fires] Ah, my ears.
 * Clemenza: Yeah, I left it noisy. That way, it scares any pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders away. All right, you shot 'em both. Now what do you do?
 * Michael: Sit down, finish my dinner.
 * Clemenza: Come on, kid. Don't fool around. Just let your hand drop to your side, and let the gun slip out. Everybody'll still think you got it. They're gonna be staring at your face, Mike, so walk out of the place real fast, but don't run. Don't look nobody directly in the eye, but you don't look away either. Eh, they're gonna be scared stiff of you, believe me, so don't worry about nothing. You know, you gonna turn out all right. You take a long vacation, nobody knows where, and we gonna catch the hell.
 * Michael: How bad do you think it's gonna be?
 * Clemenza: Pretty god-damn bad. Probably, all the other families will line up against us. That's all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know, you gotta stop 'em at the beginning, like they shoulda stopped Hitler at Munich. They should never have let him get away with that. They was just asking for big trouble. You know, Mike, we was all proud of you, being a hero and all. Your father, too.

 * Fabrizio: [in Sicilian, upon seeing Apollonia] Mamma mia, what a beauty.
 * [Apollonia says something in Sicilian and is startled to see the three men watching her. She and Michael exchange looks.]
 * Fabrizio: [to Michael, in Sicilian] I think you got hit by the thunderbolt.
 * Calo: [in Sicilian] In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.

 * [Michael, Fabrizio, and Calo visit the Bar Vitelli]
 * Vitelli: [in Sicilian] Did you have a good hunt?
 * Fabrizio: [in Sicilian] You know all the girls around here? We saw some real beauties. One of them struck our friend like a thunderbolt. She would tempt the devil himself. Really put together. Such hair, such mouth!
 * Vitelli: [in Sicilian] The girls around here are beautiful but virtuous.
 * Fabrizio: [in Sicilian] This one had a purple dress and a purple ribbon in her hair. A type more Greek than Italian. Do you know her?
 * Vitelli: [in Sicilian] No! There's no girl like that in his town! [storms back into the cafe]
 * Fabrizio: [in Sicilian] My God, I understand! [gets up to look at the cafe.]
 * Michael Corleone: [to Calo, in Sicilian] What's wrong?
 * Fabrizio: [in Sicilian] Let's go. It's his daughter.
 * Michael: [in Sicilian] Tell him to come here.
 * Fabrizio: [in Sicilian, points thumb inside] You don't understand. It's his daughter!
 * Michael: [in Sicilian] Call him. [Fabrizio heads inside to usher Mr Vitelli out, flanked by his sons] Fabrizio, translate for me. [to Mr Vitelli in English, with Fabrizio translating] I apologize if I offended you. I'm a stranger in this country and I meant no disrespect, to you or your daughter.
 * Vitelli: [in Sicilian, to Fabrizio] Who is this? He sounds American.
 * Michael: I'm an American hiding in Sicily. My name is Michael Corleone. There are people who'd pay a lot of money for that information, but then your daughter would lose a father... instead of gaining a husband. I want to meet your daughter with your permission and under the supervision of your family with all respect.
 * Vitelli: [in Sicilian, attaches suspenders] Come to my house Sunday morning. My name is Vitelli.
 * Michael [stands up, in Sicilian] thank you and what is your daughter's name?
 * Vitelli: Apollonia.
 * Michael: Bene.

 * Don Vito Corleone: [sees Tom Hagen with a drink] Give me a drop. My wife is crying upstairs. I hear cars coming to the house. Consigliere of mine, I think you should tell your Don what everyone seems to know.
 * Tom Hagen: I didn't tell Mama anything. I was about to come up and wake you and tell you.
 * Vito: But you needed a drink first.
 * Tom: Yeah.
 * Vito: Well, now you've had your drink.
 * Tom: They shot Sonny on the causeway. He's dead.
 * Vito: I want no inquiries made. I want no acts of vengeance. I want you to arrange a meeting with the heads of the Five Families. This war stops now.

 * [in the wake of Sonny's assassination, Don Vito talks to the heads of the Five Families]
 * Don Vito Corleone: How did things ever get so far? I don't know. It was so unfortunate, so unnecessary. Tattaglia lost a son and I lost a son. We're quits, and if Tattaglia agrees, then I'm willing to let things go on the way they were before.
 * Don Emilio Barzini: We're all grateful to Don Corleone for calling this meeting. We all know him as a man of his word. A modest man who will always listen to reason.
 * Don Phillip Tattaglia: Yes, Barzini, he is too modest. He had all the judges and politicians in his pocket, and refused to share them.
 * Vito: When? When did I ever refuse an accommodation? All of you know me here. When did I ever refuse, except one time? And why? Because I believe this drug business is gonna destroy us in the years to come. I mean, it's not like gambling or liquor, even women, which is something that most people want nowadays and it's forbidden to them by the pezzonovantes in the church. Even the police departments have helped us in the past with gambling and other things. They're gonna refuse to help us when it comes to narcotics. And I believed that then, and I believe that now.
 * Barzini: Times have changed. It's not like the old days when we could do anything we want. A refusal is not the act of a friend. Don Corleone had all the judges and the politicians in New York, and he must share them. He must let us draw the water from the well. Certainly, he can present a bill for such services. After all, we are not Communists!
 * Zaluchi: I also don't believe in drugs. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn't do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, "I have powders. If you put up three, four thousand dollar investment, we can make fifty thousand distributing." So they can't resist. I want to control it as a business, to keep it respectable. I don't want it near schools! I don't want it sold to children! That's an infamia. In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people, the coloreds. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls.
 * Vito: I hoped that we would come here and reason together. And as a reasonable man, I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to find a peaceful solution to these problems.
 * Barzini: Then we are agreed. The traffic in drugs will be permitted, but controlled, and Don Corleone will give us protection in the east, and there will be the peace.
 * Tattaglia: But I must have strict assurance from Corleone. As time goes by and his position becomes stronger, will he attempt any individual vendetta?
 * Barzini: Look, we are all reasonable men here. We don't have to give assurances as if we were lawyers.
 * Vito: You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you or my boy to me? I forgo the vengeance on my son. But I have selfish reasons. My youngest son was forced to leave this country because of all this Solozzo business. All right. Now I have to make arrangements to bring him back here safely, but I'm a superstitious man, and if some unlucky accident should befall him—if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he's struck by a bolt of lightning—then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room. And that, I do not forgive. But that aside, let me say that I swear on the souls of my grandchildren that I will not be the one to break the peace that we have made here today.

 * [Don Vito and Tom travel home from the Five Families meeting]
 * Tom Hagen: When I meet with the Tattaglia people, should I insist that all his drug middlemen have clean records?
 * Don Vito Corleone: Mention it. Don't insist. Barzini is a man who'll know that without being told.
 * Tom: You mean Tattaglia?
 * Vito: Tattaglia's a pimp. He never could've outfought Santino, but I didn't know until this day that it was Barzini all along.

 * [now back in America, Michael visits Kay Adams in school and they go for a walk]
 * Michael Corleone: I'm working for my father now. 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: My father's no different than any other powerful man – any man who's responsible for other people, like a senator or a president.
 * Kay: [laughs] You know how naïve you sound?
 * Michael: Why?
 * Kay: Senators and presidents don't have men killed.
 * Michael: Oh. Who's being naïve, Kay? Kay, my father's way of doing things is over, it's finished. Even he knows that. I mean, in five years, the Corleone family is going to be completely legitimate. Trust me. That's all I can tell you about my business.

 * [Michael talks to Moe Greene about buying his casino, but notices Fredo taking Moe's side when the issue of Moe slapping him is brought up]
 * Moe Greene: I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and I, so I had to straighten him out.
 * Michael Corleone: [coldly] You straightened my brother out?
 * Moe: He was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time! Players couldn't get a drink at the table! What's the matter with you?
 * Michael: [ponders and picks up cigarette pack] I leave for New York tomorrow, think about a price. [stands and goes to couch]
 * Moe: [angrily stands up with Fredo slightly blocking him] Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!
 * Freddie "Fredo" Corleone: Wait a minute, Moe, Moe, I got an idea. [Moe brushes him off. approaches Tom Hagen] Tom, you're the consiglieri and you can talk to the Don, you can explain...
 * Tom Hagen: Now hold it right there. The Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the Family business now. If you have anything to say, say it to Michael.
 * [Moe Greene leaves]
 * Fredo: Mike! You don't come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
 * Michael: [takes a drag] Fredo, [looks at him] you're my older brother, and I love you, but don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever.

<hr width="50%"/>
 * Don Vito Corleone: I knew that Santino was gonna have to go through all this, and Fredo, well, Fredo was... but I never—I never wanted this for you. I worked my whole life—I don't apologize—to take care of my family. And I refused to be a fool dancing on a string held by all of those big shots. I don't apologize. That's my life, but I thought that when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator Corleone. Governor Corleone. Something.
 * Michael Corleone: Another pezzonovante.
 * Vito: Well, there wasn't enough time, Michael. Wasn't enough time.
 * Michael: We'll get there, Pop. We'll get there.

<hr width="50%"/>
 * [Sal and Tom prepare to go to the meeting with Barzini]
 * Salvatore "Sal" Tessio: I hope Mike can get us a good deal.
 * Tom Hagen: I'm sure he will.
 * William "Willy" Cicci: [intercepts the two] Sal, Tom? Boss says he'll come in a separate car. He says for you two to go on ahead.
 * Salvatore "Sal" Tessio: Hell, he can't do that. It screws up all my arrangements!
 * Cicci: Well, that's what he said.
 * Tom: I can't go either, Sal.
 * [Several button men close in around Tessio]
 * Sal: Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him.
 * Tom: He understands that.
 * Cicci: 'Scuse me, Sal. [disarms Tessio]
 * Sal: [confidently] Tom, can you get me off the hook, for old time's sake?
 * Tom: Can't do it, Sally. [signals Cicci to take Tessio away]

<hr width="50%"/>
 * [While Carlo dials the phone, Michael Corleone enters the room with Tom Hagen, Al Neri and Rocco Lampone. Carlo turns and looks at Michael's new inner circle]
 * Michael Corleone: You have to answer for Santino, Carlo.
 * Carlo Rizzi: Mike, you've got it all wrong!
 * Michael: You fingered Sonny for the Barzini people. Ah, that little farce you played with my sister. Did you think that would fool a Corleone?
 * Carlo: Mike, I'm innocent. I swear on my kids. Please don't do this to me, Mike.
 * Michael: Sit down.
 * Carlo: Please don't do this. Please.
 * Michael: Barzini's dead. So is Phillip Tattaglia, Moe Greene, Stracci, Cuneo. Today, I settle all family business, so don't tell me you're innocent, Carlo. Admit what you did. [Carlo breaks down] Get him a drink. Come on. Don't be afraid, Carlo. Come on. You think I'd make my sister a widow? I'm Godfather to your son, Carlo. [Gives Carlo a drink] Go ahead, drink. Drink. No, Carlo, you're out of the family business, that's your punishment. We're finished. I'm putting you on a plane to Vegas. Tom? [Tom produces a plane ticket] I want you to stay there, understand? Only, don't tell me you're innocent, because it insults my intelligence. It makes me very angry. Now who approached you: Tattaglia or Barzini?
 * Carlo: It was Barzini.
 * Michael: Good. There's a car waiting for you outside, it'll take you to the airport. I'll call your wife and tell her what flight you're on.
 * Carlo: Mike, it was—
 * Michael: Get out of my sight.
 * [Carlo gets in the car and notices Clemenza sitting behind him]
 * Peter Clemenza: Hey, Carlo. [strangles Carlo]

<hr width="50%"/>
 * [Connie has just accused Michael of having Carlo killed]
 * Michael Corleone: She's hysterical. Hysterical.
 * Kay Corleone: Michael, is it true?
 * Michael: Don't ask me about my business, Kay.
 * Kay: Is it true?
 * Michael: Don't ask me about my business.
 * Kay: No!
 * Michael: [slaps the desk] Enough! All right, this one time. This one time, I'll let you ask me about my affairs.
 * Kay: Is it true? Is it?
 * Michael: No.
 * Kay: I guess we both need a drink, huh? Come on.
 * Peter Clemenza: [kissing Michael's hand as the door closes on Kay] Don Corleone!

Cast

 * Marlon Brando – Don Vito Corleone
 * Al Pacino – Michael Corleone
 * James Caan – Santino "Sonny" Corleone
 * Robert Duvall – Tom Hagen
 * Diane Keaton – Kay Adams
 * Abe Vigoda – Sal Tessio
 * Sterling Hayden – Captain McCluskey
 * Talia Shire – Connie Corleone Rizzi
 * Gianni Russo – Carlo Rizzi
 * John Cazale – Fredo Corleone
 * Richard Castellano – Pete Clemenza
 * Jack Marley – Jack Woltz
 * Al Lettieri – Virgil "the Turk" Solozzo
 * Alex Rocco – Moe Greene
 * Richard Conte – Don Emilio Barzini
 * Louis Guss – Don Joe Zaluchi
 * Al Martino – Johnny Fontane
 * Lenny Montana – Luca Brasi
 * Victor Rendina – Philip Tattaglia

Quotes about The Godfather

 * one of my favorite books-and I emphasize the word book here because I'm not talking about the movie-is The Godfather, because that book took me to another world-not necessarily a real world, but it did make good guys of some rather unpleasant people. It did take me to another world.
 * 1996 interview in Conversations with Octavia Butler

title: The Godfather