Chris Gardner Quotes

Capacity never lacks opportunity. It cannot remain undiscovered because it is sought by too many anxious to use it.

Nature would not appear so rich, the profusion so rich, if we knew a use for everything.

How many a thing which we cast to the ground, When others pick it up, becomes a gem!

Getting something and having the wits to use it...those are two different things.

There is no one that we can afford to throw away.

Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.

The art of our necessities is strange, And can make vile things precious.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

Some people don't know how to take some of the everyday, regular things that they have going for them and turn it into something else.

We shouldn't all be fixated just on what's not available. We should take a step back and look at the total that's available, because there's a mountain of information about us.

When you're used to having nothing, the first time you have something, you get really focused. You know if you lose it, it may not be easy to get it back.

Appreciate how rare and full of potential your situation is in this world, then take joy in it, and use it to your best advantage.

Every time we see people as ordinary, we turn the wine back into water.

Being truly thankful makes you infinitely more resourceful. By sincerely appreciating what you have, you find new and valuable ways to make use of it.

There are two primary ways in which mans relates himself to the world that surround him: manipulation and appreciation . In the first way he sees in what surrounds him things to be handled, forces to be managed, objects to be put to use. In the second way he sees in what surrounds him things to be acknowledged, understood, valued or admired.

Those who obtain riches by labor, care, and watching, know their value. Those who impart them to sustain and extend knowledge, virtue, and religion, know their use. Those who lose them by accident or fraud know their vanity. And those who experience the difficulties and dangers of preserving them know their perplexities.

Riches are but a means, or instrument; and the virtue of an instrument lies in its use.

They say everything in the world is good for something.

The world has not yet learned the riches of frugality.

There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece of sandalwood, out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to give up in despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he was bidden to carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood which was destined for the fire. He obeyed and produced a masterpiece from a log of common firewood. Many of us lose great opportunities in life by waiting to find sandalwood for our carvings, when they really lie hidden in the common logs that we burn.

The things that are the most valuable are often the ones you don't even know exist. -- Xavier, The Gatekeeper

There are acres of diamonds in the problem you have before you right now.

Riches are of no value in themselves; their use is discovered only in that which they procure.

Opportunities? They are all around us ... There is power lying latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to discover it.

Nothing is lost that we do not first see as lost. Visions born of fear give birth to our failing. Visions born of hope give birth to our success. What is possible lives within us, and it only remains for us to discover it.