The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
246
It was then that Don Corleone gave the speech that would be long remembered, and 
that reaffirmed his position as the most far-seeing statesman among them, so full of 
common sense, so direct from the heart; and to the heart of the matter. In it he coined a 
phrase that was to become as famous in its way as Churchill’s Iron Curtain, though not 
public knowledge until more than ten years later. 
For the first time he stood up to address the council. He was short and a little thin from 
his “illness,” perhaps his sixty years showed a bit more but there was no question that 
he had regained all his former strength, and had all his wits. 
“What manner of men are we then, if we do not have our reason,” he said. “We are all 
no better than beasts in a jungle if that were the case. But we have reason, we can 
reason with each other and we can reason with ourselves. To what purpose would I 
start all these troubles again, the violence and the turmoil? My son is dead and that is a 
misfortune and I must bear it, not make the innocent world around me suffer with me. 
And so I say, I give my honor, that I will never seek vengeance, I will never seek 
knowledge of the deeds that have been done in the past. I will leave here with a pure 
heart. 
“Let me say that we must always look to our interests. We are all men who have refused 
to be fools, who have refused to be puppets dancing on a string pulled by the men on 
high. We have been fortunate here in this country. Already most of our children have 
found a better life. Some of you have sons who are professors, scientists, musicians, 
and you are fortunate. Perhaps your grandchildren will become the new pezzonovanti. 
None of us here want to see our children follow in our footsteps, it’s too hard a life. They 
can be as others, their position and security won by our courage. I have grandchildren 
now and I hope their children may someday, who knows, be a governor, a President, 
nothing’s impossible herein America. But we have to progress with the times. The time 
is past for guns and killings and massacres. We have to be cxmning like the business 
people, there’s more money in it and it’s better for our children and our grandchildren. 
“As for our own deeds, we are not responsible to the.90 calibers the pezzonovantis who 
take it upon themselves to decide what we shall do with our lives, who declare wars they 
wish us to fight in to protect what they own. Who is to say we should obey the laws they 
make for their own interest and to our hurt? And who are they then to meddle when we 
look after our own interests? Sonna coca nostra,” Don Corleone said, “these are our 
own affairs. We will manage our world for ourselves because it is our world, cosa nostra. 
And so we have to stick together to guard against outside meddlers. Otherwise they will 

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