Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Al Capone

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble

Public service is my motto.

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

They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money.

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?

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

I have built my organization upon fear.

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.

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

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.

I am just a businessman, giving the people what they want.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Now I know why tigers eat their young.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Vote early and vote often.

Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.

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

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

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

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.'

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

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

Be careful who you call your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies.

Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business.

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.

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

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

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

Once in the racket you're always in it.