Quotes & Sayings About Capone

All I ever did was supply a demand that was pretty popular. — Al Capone

Neither, it turned out, was politics. His views on government were strong, if a trifle simplistic. The cause of the Depression, he felt, was Al Capone. "The trouble with the nation's economy," he declared, was simply Prohibition, which "makes it possible for large-scale dealers in illicit liquor to amass tremendous amounts of currency"; the "present economic crisis," he explained, was due to the "withdrawal of billions of dollars from the channels of legitimate trade" by these bootleggers. — Robert A. Caro

My rackets are run on strictly American lines and they're going to stay that way. — Al Capone

Don't you get the idea I'm one of those goddam radicals. Don't get the idea I'm knocking the American system. — Al Capone

People worship power in the form in which they are able to understand it. A twelve-year-old boy worships Jack Dempsey. An adolescent in a Glasgow slum worships Al Capone. An aspiring pupil at a business college worships Lord Nuffield. A New Statesman reader worships Stalin. There is a difference in intellectual maturity, but none in moral outlook. — George Orwell

So while you're imitating Al Capone,
I'll be Nina Simone,
And defacating on your microphone — Lauryn Hill

Hell must be a pretty swell spot, because the guys that invented religion have sure been trying hard to keep everybody else out. — Al Capone

In this life all that I have is my word and my balls and I do not break them for nobody. — Al Capone

In the 1920s, everyone wanted to be a celebrity. Everyone wanted to be like Babe Ruth or Charles Lindbergh ... Businessmen, in particular, in the '20s really believed that to be a success, an entrepreneur needed to have a personality, a sense that you were a success. That's why I think Capone dressed the way he did. And that's why he entertained the press - because he wanted to be perceived as a successful American. Dale Carnegie ... would later cite Capone as a model for creating the public image. Obviously, it went bad in many ways for Capone, but that's the image he was going for. — Jonathan Eig

You accomplish more with a smile, a handshake, and a gun than you do with just a smile and a handshake. — Al Capone

When I sell liquor, it's bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on a silver tray on Lakeshore Drive, it's hospitality. — Al Capone

If I didn't start singing in the cabarets and on my albums, I could have never even tried something like 'Capone.' — Danny Aiello

I have built my organization upon fear. — Al Capone

I'm a kind person, I'm kind to everyone, but if you are unkind to me, then kindness is not what you'll remember me for — Al Capone

One of the things is that the good intentions of Prohibition, from reading over the years and from becoming obsessed with the research of gangs in New York City, seems to have allowed crime figures at the time, like Luciano, Capone, Torrio and Rothstein, to organize to become more powerful, which pulled all the way through until the '70s. — Martin Scorsese

Knowing Jasmine's relationship to Simone, Capone didn't want me to have no parts of her. — Jessica N. Watkins

Capitalism gives all of us a great opportunity if we seize it with both hands and hang on to it. — Al Capone

I am sick and tired of publicity. I want no more of it. It puts me in a bad light. I just want to be forgotten. — Al Capone

I am going to St. Petersburg, Florida, tomorrow. Let the worthy citizens of Chicago get their liquor the best they can. I'm sick of the job-it's a thankless one and full of grief. I've been spending the best years of my life as a public benefactor. — Al Capone

I got nothing against the honest cop on the beat. You just have them transferred someplace where they can't do you any harm. But don't ever talk to me about the honor of police captains or judges. If they couldn't be bought they wouldn't have the job. — Al Capone

I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want, — Al Capone

A smile can get you far, but a smile with a gun can get you further. — Al Capone

I did it for the love of cash your honer, traffickin' cross the verrazano, coke dealin marijuana — Al Capone

You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. — Al Capone

I've been accused of every death except the casualty list of the World War. — Al Capone

Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I am kind to everyone, but when someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to remember about me. — Al Capone

I have spent the best years of my life giving people the lighter pleasures, helping them have a good time, and all I get is abuse, the existence of a hunted man. — Al Capone

They've hung everything on me except the Chicago fire. — Al Capone

You'll accomlish more with a kind word and a gun, than you will with a kind word alone. — Al Capone

It's a racket. Those stock market guys are crooked. — Al Capone

Public service is my motto. — Al Capone

These guys are not from the Iraqi army, ... These are not Iraqi soldiers. They are not members of any of the Iraqi armed forces. — Al Capone

Once in the racket you're always in it. — Al Capone

Someone once accused me of being like Eliot Ness. I sad no sir, I'm not E.N., but I can promise you that I'm not Al Capone! — Robert Stack

He pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue . . ." ~ Al Capone — J.J. McAvoy

When I was young I looked like Al Capone, but I lacked his compassion. — Oscar Levant

They are superpower of villains. They are superpower of Al Capone. — Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf

I went to high school with Al Capone. — Desi Arnaz

You want to get Capone? Here's how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. It's the Chicago way and that's how you get Capone. — David Mamet

I would rather be rich affluent and greedy and go to hell when I die, than live in poverty on this earth. — Al Capone

Paper clip. Ping. Disaster. Colonel Bowie is down. Colonel Bowie is down! The Mexican Army is now leaderless. Capone gloats. — Dean Koontz

I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long ... Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three CONTINENTS — Smedley Butler

You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. — Al Capone

They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money. — Al Capone

Don't mistake kindness for weakness — Al Capone

This American system of ours,call it Americanism,call it capitalism,call it what you will,gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we seize it with both hands and make the most of it. — Al Capone

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble — Al Capone

I'd been doing the Chicago theatre thing for years. The money was kinda good - thanks to a push by my old pal Capone, who, let's say, persuaded theatre owners to book me. — Buddy Lester

I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand. — Al Capone

I don't even know what street Canada is on. — Al Capone

I never put my arms around John Gotti, Al Capone or Lucky Luciano. — Robert Stack

Every time a boy falls off a tricycle, every time a black cat has gray kittens, every time someone stubs a toe, every time there's a murder or a fire or the marines land in Nicaragua, the police and the newspapers holler 'get Capone.' — Al Capone

You can do more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word. — Al Capone

Putin is like Al Capone. — Garry Kasparov

Having the USDA design your food pyramid is like having Al Capone do your taxes. — Caldwell Esselstyn

This American system of ours', he shouted, 'call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if only we seize it with both hands, and make the most of it'. A month later in New York I was telling this story to Mr John Walter, minority owner of The Times. He asked me why I had not written the Capone interview for the paper. I explained that when I had come to put my notes together, I saw that most of what Capone had said was in essence identical with what was being said in the leading articles of The Times itself, and I doubted whether the paper would be best pleased to find itself seeing eye to eye with the most notorious gangster in Chicago. — Claud Cockburn

Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business. — Al Capone

The Capone era. That was my time. Capone was a big baseball fan. He'd walk into the ballpark like the president walking in today, with bodyguards all around him. — Billy Herman

Do not mistake my kindness for weakness, I am kid to everyone, but if you are unkind to my it will not be weakness that you will remember me for. — Al Capone

For Hillary, gangsterism is not merely a matter of means; it is also her end. Hillary wants to be the crime boss of America. That is the only way to satisfy her unquenchable desire for money, power, and social control. As we will see in this book, Hillary is a criminal who found the criminal practices of Saul Alinsky to be too weak-kneed for her taste, and Alinsky was a gangster who found the criminal practices of the Al Capone gang to be a tad sentimental. In short, Hillary is the true Democrat, the gangster par excellence. I suspect this is why the Democratic establishment lined up so quickly behind her. While the Republicans had a real primary, hotly contested, the Democrats had a primary in which Bernie seemed to win again and again but never seemed to make a dent in Hillary's lead. That's because the Democratic super-delegates were uniformly in her camp, even though there was throughout the campaign the risk that she would be indicted. — Dinesh D'Souza

Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class. — Al Capone

We been on the road for 18 hours ... I need a bath, some chow ... and then you and me sit down, and we talk about who dies,eh? — Al Capone

How many gangsters you know, from Al Capone up to John Gotti, been gay? — Method Man

Vote early and vote often. — Al Capone

The Capone gang was actually a public utility; it supplied what the people wanted and demanded. — Saul Alinsky

Bolshevism is knocking at our gates, we can't afford to let it in ... We must keep America whole and safe and unspoiled. We must keep the worker away from red literature and red ruses; we must see that his mind remains healthy. — Al Capone

I've been trying to take the high road, you know, the Capone way ... — J.M. Darhower

I've lost a million and a half on the horses and dice in the last two years. And the funny part is, I still like 'em, and if someone handed me another million I'd put it right in the nose
of some horse that looked good to me. — Al Capone

Be careful who you call your friends. I'd rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies. — Al Capone

Everybody owned stock in the Capone mob; in a way, he was a public benefactor. I remember one time when he arrived at his box seat in Dyche Stadium for a Northwestern football game on Boy Scout Day, and 8,000 scouts got up in the stands and screamed in cadence, 'Yea, yea, Big Al. Yea, yea, Big Al.' — Saul Alinsky

I've collaborated with artists that truly run the gamut: from members of the Wu Tang Clan and Capone, to Moby, Lady Gaga, and opening for artists such as Sheryl Crow, Jack White, and Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters, etc. — Wendy Starland

Gangsta to us didn't have anything to do with Al Capone and stuff like that. It's just about living your life the way you want to live it. And you're not going to let nothing stop you. — Ice Cube

Now I know why tigers eat their young. — Al Capone

An island, on the other hand, is small. There are fewer species, and the competition for survival has never reached anything like the pitch that it does on the mainland. Species are only as tough as they need to be, life is much quieter and more settled [..] So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance. — Douglas Adams

I want you to stop being subhuman and become 'yourself'. 'Yourself,' I say. Not the newspaper you read, not your vicious neighbor's opinion, but 'yourself.' I know, and you don't, what you really are deep down. Deep down, you are what a deer, your God, your poet, or your philosopher is. But you think you're a member of the VFW, your bowling club, or the Ku Klux Klan, and because you think so, you behave as you do. This too was told you long ago, by Heinrich Mann in Germany, by Upton Sinclair and John Dos Passos in the United States. But you recognized neither Mann nor Sinclair. You recognize only the heavyweight champion and Al Capone. If given your choice between a library and a fight, you'll undoubtedly go to the fight. — Wilhelm Reich

A crook is a crook, and there's something healthy about his frankness in the matter. But any guy who pretends he is enforcing the law and steals on his authority is a swell snake. The worst type of these punks is the big politician. You can only get a little of his time because he spends so much time covering up that no one will know that he is a thief. A hard-working crook will-and can-get those birds by the dozen, but right down in his heart he won't depend on them-hates the sight of them. — Al Capone