AL CAPONE

Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.

Now I know why tigers eat their young.

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble.

Vote early and vote often.

I have built my organization upon fear.

When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality.

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

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 only seize it with both hands and make the most of it.

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

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

You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.

Everybody calls me a racketeer. I call myself a business man. When I sell liquor, it's bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on a silver tray on Lake Shore Drive [in Chicago] it's hospitality.

It’s better to negotiate with a soft voice and a loaded gun, than to negotiate with just a soft voice.

Bolshevism is knocking at our gates. We can't afford to let it in. We have got to organize ourselves against it, and put our shoulders together and hold fast. 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.

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.

The stock market is a racket. Those guys are crooks.

I’ve been accused of every death except the casualty list of the World War. [WWI]

The can’t collect legal taxes from illegal money.

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.'

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

Public service is my motto.

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

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.

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

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.