The Pursuit of Happyness Quotes

Christopher Gardner: [after playing basket ball] Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you... You can't do something. Not even me. All right?
Christopher: All right.
Christopher Gardner: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it.

Period.

Christopher: [while walking past a bus and to sell a bone density scanner] Hey dad, you wanna hear something funny? There was a man who was drowning, and a boat came, and the man on the boat said "Do you need help?" and the man said "God will save me". Then another boat came and he tried to help him, but he said "God will save me", then he drowned and went to Heaven. Then the man

told God, "God, why didn't you save me?" and God said "I sent you two boats, you dummy!"

Christopher Gardner: [narrating, at a payphone, raining, after learning Linda is taking Christopher away from him] It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe

happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?

[last lines]
Christopher Gardner: How many planets are there?
Christopher: Um... 7?
Christopher Gardner: Seven? Nine! OK, who's the king of the jungle?
Christopher: The gorilla?
Christopher Gardner: Gorilla? Nope. Lion.
Christopher: Yeah, lion, lion. You

wanna hear something funny?
Christopher Gardner: OK.
Christopher: Knock knock.
Christopher Gardner: Who's there?
Christopher: [starts be to become out of view] Shelby.
Christopher Gardner: Shelby who?
Christopher: Shelby comin' round the mountain when she

comes, Shelby comin' round the mountain when she comes!
Christopher Gardner: Hey, that's good.
Christopher: Knock knock.
Christopher Gardner: Who's there?
Christopher: Nobody.
Christopher Gardner: Nobody who?
[Christopher doesn't respond]
Christopher

Gardner: Nobody who?
[Christopher still doesn't respond]
Christopher Gardner: A-ha-ha, that's a good one, I like that!

Christopher Gardner: [walking to Walter Ribbon's home] Probably means there's a good chance. Possibly means we might or we might not.
Christopher: Okay.
Christopher Gardner: So, what does probably mean?
Christopher: It means we have a good chance.
Christopher Gardner: And what does

possibly mean?
Christopher: I know what it means! It means we're *not* going to the game.

Christopher Gardner: [while bringing Christopher to daycare, about the spelling mistakes in the graffiti of a building] It's not H-A-P-P-Y-N-E-S-S Happiness is spelled with an "I" instead of a "Y"
Christopher: Oh, okay. Is "Fuck" spelled right?
Christopher Gardner: Um, yes. "Fuck" is spelled right but you shouldn't use that word.

Christopher: Why? What's it mean?
Christopher Gardner: [going inside the daycare] It's, um, an adult word used to express anger and, uh, other things. But it's an adult word. It's spelled right, but don't use it.

Christopher Gardner: [during the interview for the internship position] I've been sitting out here for the last half-hour trying to come up with a story that would explain my being here dressed like this. And I wanted to come up with a story that would demonstrate qualities that I'm sure you all admire here like earnestness, diligence, team-playing. And I couldn't think of

anything. So the truth is, I was arrested for failure to pay parking tickets.
Jay Twistle: Parking tickets?
[employers laugh]
Christopher Gardner: I ran all the way here from the police station.
Martin Frohm: What were you doing before you were arrested?
Christopher Gardner: I was, uh, painting

my apartment.