In Forrest Gump, what does Forrest compare life to?

In Forrest Gump, Forrest compares life to a box of chocolates.

The full line is, “My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” Forrest attributes the saying to his mother, Mrs. Gump, who presents it as a lesson about uncertainty and the unpredictability of experience.

The quote appears early in the film while Forrest waits at a bus stop and tells his life story to strangers. Tom Hanks delivers the line in the character’s simple, earnest style, which helped make it one of the film’s most recognizable quotations.

The wording is sometimes shortened to “life is like a box of chocolates,” but the film’s famous version begins with “My mama always said.” The 1994 film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and adapted from Winston Groom’s 1986 novel.