Accidents Dont Happen To People Who

From Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1969). The line is spoken by Michael Corleone to Tom Hagen, the family consigliere, as Michael reflects on what makes his father extraordinary. According to Michael, the Don's greatness lies in his refusal to accept misfortune passively: he regards every accident as a failure of his own vigilance, which in turn makes him nearly impossible to catch off guard. The passage appears on page 118 of the Penguin edition and is one of the novel's clearest statements of Vito Corleone's operating philosophy.