2. “Be careful who you call your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies.”
3. “You accomplish more with a smile, a handshake, and a gun than you do with just a smile and a handshake.”
4. “In this life all that I have is my word and my balls and I do not break them for nobody.”
5. “Capitalism gives all of us a great opportunity if we seize it with both hands and hang on to it.”
6. “A smile can get you far, but a smile with a gun can get you further.”
7. “You’d be surprised if you knew some of the fellows I’ve got to take care of.”
8. “I have built my organization upon fear.”
9. “All I ever did was sell beer and whiskey to our best people. All I ever did was supply a demand that was pretty popular. Why, the very guys that make my trade good are the ones that yell the loudest about me. Some of the leading judges use the stuff.”
10. “It seems like I’m responsible for every crime that takes place in this country.”
11. “I would rather be rich affluent and greedy and go to hell when I die, than live in poverty on this earth.”
12. “I’m the boss. I’m going to continue to run things. They’ve been putting the roscoe on me for a good many years and I’m still healthy and happy. Don’t let anybody kid you into thinking I can be run out of town. I haven’t run yet and I’m not going to.”
13. “You can do more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word.”
14. “People who respect nothing dread fear. It is upon fear, therefore, that I have built up my organization. But understand me correctly, please. Those who work with me are afraid of nothing. Those who work for me are kept faithful, not so much because of their pay as because they know what might be done with them if they broke faith.”
15. “Why not treat our business like any other man treats his, as something to work at in the daytime and forget when he goes home at night? There’s plenty of business for everybody. Why kill each other over it?”
16. “The country wanted booze and I organized it. Why should I be called a public enemy?”
17. “It’s pretty tough when a citizen with an unblemished record must be hounded from his home by the very policemen whose salaries are paid, at least in part, from the victim’s pocket. You might say that every policeman in Chicago gets some of his bread and butter from the taxes I pay.”
18. “Once you’re in the racket, you’re always in it. The parasites will trail you, begging for money and favors, and you can never get away from them no matter where you go.”
19. “Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business.”
20. “I never stuck up a man in my life. Neither did any of my agents ever rob anybody or burglarize any homes while they worked for me. They might have pulled plenty of jobs before they came with me or after they left me, but not while they were in my outfit.”
21. “They can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money.”
22. “The funny part of the whole thing is that a man in this line of business has so much company. I mean his customers. If people did not want beer and wouldn’t drink it, a fellow would be crazy for going around trying to sell it!”
23. “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.”
24. “Public service is my motto.”
25. “They talk about me not being legitimate. Nobody’s on the legit, you know that and so do they. Nobody’s really-on the legit when it comes down to cases.”
26. “Hell must be a pretty swell spot, because the guys that invented religion have sure been trying hard to keep everybody else out.”
27. “Now I know why their young.”
28. “I have always been opposed to violence, to shootings. I have fought, yes, but fought for peace. And I believe I can take credit for the peace that now exists in the racket game in Chicago. I believe that the people can thank me for the fact that gang killings here are probably a thing of the past.”
29. “All I ever did was supply a demand that was pretty popular.”
30. “I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.”
31. “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.”
32. “I’ve lost a million and a half on the 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.”
33. “I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want.”
34. “Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.”
35. “Prohibition has made nothing but trouble.”