Top 40 Chris Gardner Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “If you want something, go get it. Period.”

— Chris Gardner

2. “If you have a dream, you’ve got to protect it.”

— Chris Gardner

3. “It’s okay to fail; it’s not okay to quit.”

— Chris Gardner

4. “The world is your oyster. It’s up to you to find the pearls.”

— Chris Gardner

5. “There is no plan B for passion.”

— Chris Gardner

6. “Baby steps count, as long as you are going forward. You add them all up, and one day you look back and you’ll be surprised at where you might get to.”

— Chris Gardner

7. “It can be done, but you have to make it happen.”

— Chris Gardner

8. “Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something.”

— Chris Gardner

9. “The secret to success: find something you love to do so much, you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over again.”

— Chris Gardner

10. “People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it.”

— Chris Gardner

11. “Claim ownership of your dreams.”

— Chris Gardner

12. “Walk that walk and go forward all the time. Don’t just talk that talk, walk it and go forward. Also, the walk didn’t have to be long strides; baby steps counted too. Go forward.”

— Chris Gardner

13. “Ready or not, Tell yourself to jump.”

— Chris Gardner

14. “Find something that you love. Something that gets you so excited you can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning. Forget about money. Be happy.”

— Chris Gardner

15. “Always, always pursue happiness.”

— Chris Gardner

16. “Do something that you love. Whatever you’re going to do is going to be tough enough. Find something that gets you so excited that the sun can’t come up early enough in the morning because you want to go do your thing.”

— Chris Gardner

17. “But if you don’t take the necessary steps to make them happen, dreams are just mirages that mess with your head!”

— Chris Gardner

18. “We all understand genetics. You get your eyes from your dad, your mom’s nose, there’s nothing you can do about that. But your spiritual genetics you can choose, pick, embrace and commit to. That’s what I did.”

— Chris Gardner

19. “Strong people stand up for themselves. Stronger people stand up for others. The irony is that while sleep sometimes brings nightmares, it’s the reality of my waking hours that can cause me the greater fear.”

— Chris Gardner

20. “Then again, what seems like nothing in the eyes of the world, when properly valued and put to use, can be among the greatest riches.”

— Chris Gardner

21. “One of the things young people always ask me about is what is the secret to success. The secret is there is no secret. It’s the basics. Blocking and tackling.”

— Chris Gardner

22. “Still a dreamer, yet more of a realist than ever before, I knew this was my time to sail. On the horizon I saw the shining future, as before. The difference now was that I felt the wind at my back. I was ready.”

— Chris Gardner

23. “The balance in your life is more important than the balance in your checking account.”

— Chris Gardner

24. “The future was uncertain, absolutely, and there were many hurdles, twists, and turns to come, but as long as I kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other, the voices of fear and shame, the messages from those who wanted me to believe that I wasn’t good enough, would be stilled.”

— Chris Gardner

25. “Wealth can also be that attitude of gratitude with which we remind ourselves everyday to count our blessings.”

— Chris Gardner

26. “You know how mountains get moved? Everyone who can move a couple, move a couple. Those who can move rocks, move rocks. Those who can move boulders, move boulders. That’s how mountains get moved. If every one of us did everything we could, I believe we would be in a different world.”

— Chris Gardner

27. “I hold one thing dearer than all else: my commitment to my son.”

— Chris Gardner

28. “I was late once and it cost me $50,000. I figure it was cheaper to wear two watches.”

— Chris Gardner

29. “As busy as I am wherever I am, I...”

— Chris Gardner

30. “I just wanted to make a million dollars. But I couldn’t sing and I couldn’t play ball, so I said to my mother, ‘How am I going to make a million dollars?’ And she said to me, ‘Son, if you believe you can do it, you will.’”

— Chris Gardner

31. “There was a language specific to all things. The ability to learn another language in one arena, whether it was music, medicine, or finance, could be used to accelerate learning and other arenas, too.”

— Chris Gardner

32. “Though my mom had too many of her own dreams denied, deferred and destroyed, she instilled in me that I could have dreams. And not just have dreams but had a responsibility to make them reality. My mom taught me from a very early age that I could do anything I wanted to do.”

— Chris Gardner

33. “Well, I really don’t want to be a high-powered corporate lawyer. I’m really passionate about painting.”

— Chris Gardner

34. “If you have a dream and a desire to pursue it with every fiber of your being, but can’t move past excuses or circumstances that seem to be standing in your way, there is a life lesson ahead with your name on it. If you are tired of the status quo and are dying to shake up your life, reinvent yourself, and find a pursuit you love doing so much that you can’t wait for the sun to come up in the morning, you’ve come to the right place. If.”

— Chris Gardner

35. “This is a work of nonfiction. I have rendered the events faithfully and truthfully just as I have recalled them. Some names and descriptions of individuals have been changed in order to respect their privacy. To anyone whose name I did not.”

— Chris Gardner

36. “No one ever laid out the sequence of events that led to my mother being prosecuted and imprisoned for alleged welfare fraud.”

— Chris Gardner

37. “You won’t find magic potions here. No matter how enticing they may seem, promises of quick fixes mostly set us up for failure and do more to deter us than empower us.”

— Chris Gardner

38. “Every time he came back, apologetic, contrite, he’d start off being real nice. But he was as predictable as rain. No body knew when he’d go off, but at some point everybody knew he would.”

— Chris Gardner

39. “Sizing up succinctly his lack of formal education compared with his determination to learn from others, the author writes, “I went to college with every person I ever met.”

— Chris Gardner

40. “Mr. Gardner, why people gotta keep you down when you have your dream?” Again, I was having a long overdue conversation with myself. “Well,” I said, “people who can’t do something themselves, they’re jealous, so they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. But you know what? You got a dream, it’s yours and you gotta protect it. So, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. If you want something, go get it. Period.”

— Chris Gardner

41. “Don’t listen to them,” I said. “In fact, don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do something. Not your parents, your teachers. Nobody.”

— Chris Gardner

42. “The irony is that while sleep sometimes brings nightmares, it’s the reality of my waking hours that can cause me the greater fear.”

— Chris Gardner

43. “What I do know in the hours and days that follow is that nothing puts more stress on a relationship between a man and a woman than if the man has no job. At least, in the world I come from and inhabit, that’s so. A man without a job, as far as my upbringing taught me, is no man at all. Any man that was a man had to take care of and provide for his family.”

— Chris Gardner

44. “All that travel is inevitably exhausting, but it never gets old. Arriving in the next city for the next opportunity is always a thrill. As busy as I am, wherever I am, I try to get out and walk the streets, to check out the sidewalks for cracks, to remember how far I’ve come and appreciate every baby step of the way, to stand in amazement and joy that the pursuit never ends.”

— Chris Gardner