10 great Forrest Gump quotes

What makes a movie a classic? Great storytelling, authentic acting, memorable characters, and of course, quotable dialogue. But it takes more than this. Movies that become classics have to capture something about the zeitgeist of our time. They have to find their audience at exactly the right moment, and this is what happened with Forrest Gump.

It spanned the decades and reflected on seminal moments…and actually made them funny, thanks to a lovable, but not too bright, young man who happened to be in the right place at the right time: Forest Gump. Here are 10 memorable Forrest Gump quotes in celebration of the film’s twentieth anniversary. All the quotes are by Forrest, except the very last one.

“Stupid is as stupid does.”

“My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

“I’m not a smart man… but I know what love is.”

“Mama always said, dying was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn’t.”

“Mama always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them.”

“The best thing about visiting the President is the food! Now, since it was all free, and I wasn’t hungry but thirsty, I must’ve drank me fifteen Dr. Peppers.”

“My momma always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they go, where they’ve been. I’ve worn lots of shoes, I bet if I think about it real hard I can remember my first pair of shoes.”

“Bubba was my best-good friend. And even I know that ain’t something you can find just around the corner.”

“Anyway, like I was sayin’, shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.”  — Bubba