The Pursuit of Happyness Monologues

A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.

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?

I met my father for the first time when I was 28 years old. I made up my mind that when I had children, my children were going to know who their father was.

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.

he next day, after work, we just went to the beach. Far away from anything, everything. Just Christopher and me. Far away from busses and noise and a constant disappointment in my 10-gallon head… in myself. Because when I was young and I'd get an A on a history test or whatever… I'd get this good feeling about all the things I could be. And then I never became any of them.