Quotes from Wiseguy

Nicholas Pileggi ·  320 pages

Rating: (10.9K votes)


“By birth, certainly, they were not prepared in any way to achieve their desires. They were not the smartest kids in the neighborhood. They were not born the richest. They weren’t even the toughest. In fact, they lacked almost all the necessary talents that might have helped them satisfy the appetites of their dreams, except one—their talent for violence.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


“On one occasion Jimmy is said to have given the elderly, impoverished mother of a young hood five thousand dollars. The woman’s son was said to have owed his mother the money but had refused to pay her. Jimmy was apparently so incensed at this lack of regard for motherhood that he gave the woman the five thousand in the morning, claiming it was from her son, and then allegedly killed the woman’s son before dusk.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


“Henry was never able to help McDonald crack Lufthansa—the”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


“Of course, no matter how Henry tried to rationalize what he had done, his survival depended upon his capacity for betrayal. He willingly turned on the world he knew and the men with whom he had been raised with the same nonchalance he had used in setting up a bookie joint or slipping a tail. For Henry Hill giving up the life was hard, but giving up his friends was easy.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


“The federal prosecutors were asking him about his role in the $6 million Lufthansa German Airlines robbery, the largest successful cash robbery in American history.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy



“I had a drugstore wholesaler who had discount stores all over Long Island.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


About the author

Nicholas Pileggi
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date February 22, 1933
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Molly, a home is not a place. It's not a country or a town or a building or possession. Home is with the other half of your soul, the person who shares in your grief and helps you carry the burden of loss. Home is with the person who throughout it all never gives up on you and brings you eternal happiness.”
― Tillie Cole, quote from Sweet Home


“Nathan called all shiksas Maria--the explanation seemed as ludicrously simple as that.”
― Philip Roth, quote from The Counterlife


“9. HUMAN RIGHTS [70:9.1] Nature confers no rights on man, only life and a world in which to live it. Nature does not even confer the right to live, as might be deduced by considering what would likely happen if an unarmed man met a hungry tiger face to face in the primitive forest. Society's prime gift to man is security. [70:9.2] Gradually society asserted its rights and, at the present time, they are Assurance of food supply. Military defense—security through preparedness. Internal peace preservation—prevention of personal violence and social disorder. Sex control—marriage, the family institution. Property—the right to own. Fostering of individual and group competition. Provision for educating and training youth. Promotion of trade and commerce—industrial development. Improvement of labor conditions and rewards. The guarantee of the freedom of religious practices to the end that all of these other social activities may be exalted by becoming spiritually motivated.”
― Urantia Foundation, quote from The Urantia Book


“Realize this, though. Half my genes run through your body, and my selfish genome is heavily evolutionarily pre-programmed to look out for its copies. The other half is copied from the man I admire most in all the worlds and time, so my interest is doubly riveted. The artistic combination of the two, shall we say, arrests my attention.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Mirror Dance


“Getting a full-body buzz with a guy I'd just met was as weird as seeing dead people. But much more enjoyable.”
― Myra McEntire, quote from Hourglass


Interesting books

Still Alice
(256.8K)
Still Alice
by Lisa Genova
Ficciones
(37.7K)
Ficciones
by Jorge Luis Borges
Death on the Nile
(81.8K)
Death on the Nile
by Agatha Christie
The Lucky One
(294.6K)
The Lucky One
by Nicholas Sparks
The Poetry of Robert Frost (Collected Poems, Complete & Unabridged)
(36K)
The Poetry of Robert...
by Robert Frost
Small Gods
(85.9K)
Small Gods
by Terry Pratchett

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.