Forrest Gump quotes

View Quote [Repeated line] Hello. My name's Forrest, Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.

View Quote My momma always said, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."' Note: ranked #40 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

View Quote [Repeated line] Stupid is as stupid does.

View Quote [Repeated line] And that's all I have to say about that.

View Quote [Repeated line] And just like that, my...

View Quote Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes. Momma said they'd take me anywhere. She said they was my magic shoes.

View Quote Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we was related to him in some way. And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around. And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense.

View Quote We lived about a quarter mile off Route 17, about a half mile from the town of Greenbow, Alabama. That's in the county of Greenbow. Our house had been in Momma's family since her grandpa's grandpa's grandpa had come across the ocean about a thousand years ago. Something like that. Since it was just me and Momma and we had all these empty rooms, Momma decided to let those rooms out. Mostly to people passing through. Like from, oh, Mobile, Montgomery, place like that. That's how me and Momma got money. Momma was a real smart lady.

View Quote Me and Jenny was like peas and carrots.

View Quote He was a very loving man. He was always kissing and touching her and her sisters.

View Quote Now, it used to be, I ran to get where I was going. Now I didn't know it would ever take me anywhere.

View Quote College ran by real fast 'cause I played so much football. They even put me on a thing called the All-America Team where you get to meet the President of the United States. Now, the real good thing about meeting the President of the United States is the food. They put you in this little room with just about anything you'd want to eat or drink. And, since number one; I wasn't hungry, but thirsty. And number two; they was free. I must o' drank me about fifteen Dr Peppers.

View Quote Her dream had come true. She was a folk singer.

View Quote Now, they told us that Vietnam was gonna be very different from the United States of America. Except for all the beer cans and the barbecue, it was.

View Quote [After Lieutenant Dan asks Forrest if he and Bubba are related] No. We are not relations, sir.

View Quote I got to see a lot of countryside. We would take these real long walks.

View Quote Lt. Dan, ice cream!

View Quote We was always looking for some guy named Charlie.

View Quote I GOTTA FIND BUBBA!

View Quote The good thing about Vietnam is there was always someplace to go. And there was always something to do. One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain, and big ol' fat rain, rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night.

View Quote Now, I don't know much about anything, but I think some of American's best young men served in this war. There was Dallas, from Phoenix. Cleveland, he was from Detroit. And Tex was, well, I don't remember where Tex come from.

View Quote Bubba was my best good friend, I had to make sure he was okay. And on my way back to find Bubba, well, there was this boy laying on the ground. I couldn't just let him lay there all alone, scared the way he was. So I grabbed him up and run him out of there. And every time I went back looking for Bubba, somebody else was saying, "Help me, Forrest. Help me."

View Quote For some reason, ping-pong came very natural to me, so I started playing it all the time. I played ping-pong even when I didn't have anyone to play ping-pong with. The hospital's people said it made me look like a duck in water, whatever that means. Even Lieutenant Dan would come and watch me play. I played ping-pong so much, I even played it in my sleep.

View Quote Sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther party.

View Quote Know what I think? You should go home to Greenbow, ALABAMA!

View Quote I thought I was going back to Vietnam, but instead, they decided the best way for me to fight communists was to play ping-pong. So I was in the Special Services, traveling around the country, cheering up all them wounded veterans and showing them how to play ping-pong. I was so good that some years later the Army decided I should be on the All-American Ping-Pong Team. We were the first Americans to visit the land of China in, like, a million years or something like that, and somebody said that world peace was in our hands. But all I did was play ping-pong. When I got home, I was national celebrity. More famous even than Captain Kangaroo.

View Quote I am not a smart man, but I know what love is.

View Quote Mamma said you gotta' put the past behind you before you can move on.

View Quote Mamma said stupid is as stupid does!

View Quote After that, shrimpin' was easy. And since people still needed them shrimps for shrimp ****tails and barbecues and all. And since we were the only boat left standing, "Bubba-Gump" shrimp's what they got. We got a whole bunch of boats. Twelve Jenny's, a big ol' warehouse, we even have hats that says "Bubba-Gump" on 'em. "Bubba-Gump Shrimp." It's a household name.

View Quote Yes, sir. We've got more money than Davy Crockett.

View Quote He never actually said so, but I think he made his peace with God.

View Quote Now, because I had been a football star, and a war hero, and a national celebrity, and a shrimpin' boat captain, and a college graduate, the city of fathers of Greenbow, Alabama, decided to get together and offered me a fine job. So, I never went back to work for Lieutenant Dan. Though he did take care of my Bubba-Gump money. He got me invested in some kind of fruit company. And so then I got a call from him saying we don't have to worry about money no more and I said, "That's good. One less thing". Now, Momma said there's only so much fortune a man really needs and the rest is just for showing off. So, I gave a whole bunch of it to the Four Square Gospel Church and I gave a whole bunch to the Bayou La Batre Fishing Hospital. And even though Bubba was dead, and Lieutenant Dan said I was nuts, I gave Bubba's momma Bubba's share. And you know what? She didn't have to work in nobody's kitchen no more. And 'cause I was gazillionaire and I liked doing it so much, I cut that grass for free.

View Quote Jenny came back and stayed with me. Maybe it was because she had nowhere else to go. Or may be it was because she was so tired, because she went to bed and slept and slept like she hadn't slept in years. It was wonderful having her home. Every day we'd take a walk, and I'd jabber on like a monkey in a tree and she'd listen about ping-pong and shrimpin' boats and Momma makin' a trip to Heaven. I did all the talkin'. Jenny most of the time was real quiet.

View Quote Sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks.

View Quote And that's all I have to say about that.

View Quote (At the end of his cross-country run) I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now.

View Quote That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go... you know... I went.

View Quote You died on a Saturday morning and I had you placed here under our tree. And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground. Momma always said dyin' was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn't. Little Forrest, he's doing just fine. About to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. Teaching him how to play ping pong. He's really good. We fish a lot. And every night, we read a book. He's so smart, Jenny. You'd be so proud of him. I am. He, uh, wrote a letter, and he says I can't read it. I'm not supposed to, so I'll just leave it here for you. Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away.