You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get Capone.[to Eliot]
If you’re afraid of getting a rotten apple, don’t go to the barrel. Get it off the tree.
You got an all-out prize fight? You wait until the fight is over, one guy’s left standing, and that’s how you know who won.
Yeah? Well, you’re not from Chicago.[Mountie Captain: I do not approve of your methods.]
This is the job. Don’t wait for it to happen, don’t even want it to happen. Just watch what does happen.[to Eliot]
Like a lot of things in life, we laugh because it’s funny, and we laugh because it’s true.
I’m gonna tell you something. Somebody messes with me, I’m gonna mess with him. Somebody steals from me, I’m gonna say you stole, not talk to him for spittin’ on the sidewalk.[to reporters]
I think I’ll have a drink.[Scoop: They say they’re going to repeal prohibition. What will you do then?]
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I grew up in a tough neighbourhood. And we used to say, “You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”
You just fulfilled the first rule of law enforcement. Make sure when your shift is over you go home alive. Here endeth the lesson.[to Eliot]
The truth of the case is that the man Capone is a killer and he will go free. There is only one way to deal with such men, and that is hunt them down. I have. I have foresworn myself. I have broken every law I swore to defend, I have become what I beheld and I am content that I have done right!
That’s the second rule of police work. If you want to keep a secret, don’t tell the boss.[Eliot Ness: How do you come by this information?]