90 Tom Hardy Quotes On Life, Love, and Respect

If you are hunting for motivation, you better gear your mind with these 90 Tom Hardy quotes!

Edward Thomas Hardy is a professional actor who starred in many films like the sci-fi thriller, Inception.

His statements show that he is humble and has an undying passion for acting.

Considering that he has been successful in his career, his personality and drive is something we should definitely look up to.

In these quotes, you’ll see how he has shared his perceptions about life, respect, and love.

This collection is filled with his words of wisdom, so you better check this out.

Let’s get started.

And make sure to read these Robin Williams quotes.

Best Tom Hardy Quotes

1. “Being alone for a while is dangerous. It’s addicting. Once you see how peaceful it is, you don’t want to deal with people anymore.”

2. “Stop thinking that just because you have a college degree, it makes you smart. I know a lot of people who own a driver’s license, yet they can’t drive for shit.”

3. “I hate publicists and publicity. But I love the people.”

4. “Weak people always have to be in a relationship so they can feel important and loved. Once you start enjoying your own company, being single becomes a privilege.”

5. “Spirituality seems to me to be for those who’ve been through hell.”

6. “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger.”

7. “The only thing I can do is wipe my arse, brush my teeth, turn up, and do the best work I can.”

8. “Vanity is normal in performers. Does it bother other people? All the time. But 9 times out of 10, that says more about them than you.”

9. “It doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is your plan.”

10. “Love is doing something you don’t want to do for someone you don’t particularly like at that moment.”

11. “I was raised to treat the janitor with the same respect as the CEO.”

12. “Responsibility has a cost, and there’s no such thing as perfection.”

Inspirational Tom Hardy Quotes

13. “There’s a long way to go on that, but I do believe that the time is now.”

14. “We are survivors. We control the fear. And without fear, we are all as good as dead.”

15. “We’re all flawed human beings and we all have a cauldron of psychosis which we have to unravel as we grow older and find the way we fit in to live our lives as best as possible.”

16. “Never give power to the big man.”

17. “I’m going to fail to hit the mark I’ve put up before me because it’s not possible to hit it. I want to be the best at what I do so I’ve got to get over myself already because that’s never going to happen. I ain’t ever going to be God.”

18. “I’m here to challenge myself and to see whether I can shape-shift in an environment that’s actually quite daunting, but which I think would be nice to shine a light into. The destination of any interesting drama is that you shine a light into a place that not many people know about.”

19. “There’s always a certain pride in getting a job done properly.”

20. “So, somewhere between that acceptance and doing my homework and being competitive and having ambition and loving my job and observing and reflecting my society, that’s where I find the purpose. Because man needs purpose.”

21. “Within the creative arts, you can create things and destroy things. Passion creates and destroys.”

22. “Fame and stuff like that is all very cool, but at the end of the day, we’re all human beings. Although what I do is incredibly surreal and fun and amazing and I’m really grateful for it, I don’t believe my own press release, do you know what I mean?”

23. “You don’t step on stage to eat, you go there to be eaten.”

24. “Whatever character you play, remember they are always doing something. They are not just talking. They are alive; going through a drama in which they will go through some sort of dramatic human experience.”

25. “I don’t like it when people say, ‘Well, you should have expected that when you accepted the job as an actor.’ When you go to drama school, no one gives you a class on fame. Just treat people how you wish to be treated. Whether I’m married or not married, people will find out. But it’s also not something I’m going to offer.”

Tom Hardy Quotes on Respect

26. “I think it’s important that you always transform if you can. That’s what I was trained to do. You try and hide yourself as much as you can—that’s the key to longevity.”

27. “I’m not interested in walks in the parks. Anything difficult that people think I couldn’t play, I’m straight at it. If they say ‘Tom, don’t put your hand in the fire’, you know I’ll be coming out of casualty an hour later with third-degree burns and bandages up my arms.”

28. “I don’t fight, really. I try not to fight, actually. I try not to react. I’m a Buddha floating on a lily pad.”

29. “You know too much psychology when you can’t get mad at people because you understand everyone’s reason for doing everything.”

30. “I look both ways before crossing a one-way street. That’s how much faith I have left in humanity.”

31. “Intelligence is a very valuable thing, innit, my friend? And usually, it comes far too late.”

32. “As actors, we have the opportunity to work with many directors. Directors only work with themselves and other actors. They never know what it is like to work with another director. So that relationship that one has with a director is entirely always the king.”

33. “It is not the violence that sets a man apart, it is the distance he is prepared to go.”

34. “The funny thing is when you don’t let people disrespect you, they start calling you difficult.”

35. “I see myself as a piece of meat. And it’s purely subjective. For me, I know that’s the best I can do.”

36. “The characters I’ve played have been mostly violent, and I’m so far from being violent or aggressive.”

Tom Hardy Quotes That Share His Perception in Life

37. “I’d learned how to lie and manipulate from an early age so a combination of that, desperation, having to have my own fridge and my umbilical cord back,had to go out into the world. Then some angel somewhere said, ‘Have you considered going to drama school?’ And this sounded like the solution to all of my problems.”

38. “A lot of people say I seem masculine, but I don’t feel it. I feel intrinsically feminine. I’d love to be one of the boys but I always felt a bit on the outside. Maybe my masculine qualities come from overcompensating because I’m not one of the boys.”

39. “And I like people. I like to know what you’re really up to. I’m a bit of a nosey busybody. Why do they do the things they do? Why are they prepared to do the things they do to get what they want? When? Where? Who?”

40. “I’m very sensitive. Because my mum was my primary emotional caregiver growing up, I found myself being pinned into dresses, darting her dresses, choosing her high heels for the evening or what to wear. I’m very much a mommy’s boy.”

41. “I find crying difficult. It takes a long time for me to go. And I won’t know what will send me. I’m quite sentimental. If my son tells me he loves me, that will make me cry. Mr. Holland’s Opus, unbelievably, broke me. A random anomaly. Bambi would probably do me.”

42. “I have a very busy head. I have inside voices that I have learned to contain.”

43. “I want to dispel that it’s all about celebrity-ism, I’m f*ck*ng bored of people looking at whose shoes are interesting and what hat is interesting. Storytelling is very important to people, it comforts them, unites us, cheers us up, and we can affect change with these arts. We need to be entertained to connect.”

44. “I didn’t understand how you could do something which is so much fun and be so miserable doing it.”

45. “I went entirely off the rails and I’m lucky I didn’t have some terrible accident or end up in prison or dead, because that’s where I was going. Now I know my beast and I know how to manage it. It’s like living with a 400 pound orangutan that wants to kill me. It’s much more powerful than me, doesn’t speak the same language and it runs around the darkness of my soul.”

46. “Jiu jitsu is very Buddhist. All that we fear we hold close to ourselves to survive. So if you’re drowning and you see a corpse floating by, hang on to it because it will rescue you.”

47. “Being an only child, I didn’t have any other family but my mom and dad really, since the rest of my family lived quite far away from London.”

48. “Style, I think, is panache. Who are you? What did you do today? And what are you worth to me? What do you have to offer the world? How did you spend your time today on this planet? How are you spending your time every second? What are you doing now? Are you alive, or are you somnambulant?”

49. “There’s something that’s very human about ‘Warriors’ that brings you out. You’re watching the movie and, yeah, there’s fighting, there’s a tournament at the end of the movie,but it takes a long time to get to know these people.”

50. “I’m not really a road dog. I’m a bit of a homeboy. But the reality is, I love what I f*ck*ng do.”

51. “The lack of carbohydrates can make you a little crazy.”

Tom Hardy Quotes on Success

52. “It is your job to make them become so. Anything you do on stage or film has a direct relation to something you have experienced in one form or another in real life. Use your imagination to exaggerate or lessen that sensation. Then, disguise it in characterization and don’t forget to make lots and lots of mistakes, and look like a complete *ssh*l*. You’ll do fine.”

53. “When I was nine, I ran in a school race, and I suddenly realized I was in the lead. I looked at the finish line, and just freaked out, then ran to the side as if I’d hurt myself. It was everything to do with the fear of success.”

54. “I’m from a nice, suburban, idle-class family, but my tattoos remind me where I’ve been.”

55. “I’m not a big guy anyway. I’m only, what, 150 pounds? I was 190 for ‘Batman,’ 179 for ‘Warrior.’ Films make you look big.”

56. “It was always in the cards for Michael. It was always in the cards for him. I’m not surprised about him at all, because he was awesome. Me, I don’t know how I got here! I feel like I just came from delivering pizza and I got lucky.”

57. “No matter how much you can prepare for it, there’s nothing worse than the anticipation. It’s always the killer of everything. The actuality of doing something is normally a lot easier than waiting for it.”

58. “I get hired more then I get seen more. I get seen more, then maybe celebrity and fame happens, but at the end of the day there’s no difference between my five dollar performance and my fifty million dollar performance.”

59. “But I think as you get into your 40s, you have to be more mindful of the rapid training, packing on a lot of weight and getting physical, and then not having enough time to keep training because you’re busy filming, so your body is swimming in two different directions at the same time.”

60. “There’s two types of acting—convincing and not convincing. People describe me as intense. It’s because I care. I am a pain in the *ss because I care. Do I know what I’m doing? No. Do I have the best of intentions? Yes. Does that lead to hell? Sometimes.”

61. “I’m never lost in a character, ever. Everything is absolutely articulated and worked out and there’s no room for error. The only thing there is room for is inspiration in the moment because you’ve done your homework up to that point.”

62. “If you look around Hollywood there’s no end of white smiles and six packs. Long lines of beautiful people lining up to be incredible on film.”

63. “There’s no feeling of, ‘I’ve got to be the best in the world.’ I’m going to be the best I can. I tell myself, it’s only storytelling and it’s going to be OK and you love doing this. Pick any one of the reasons to do it and, for the next five minutes, enjoy that. It’s one thing being on top, but knowing what to do while you’re there is something else. Do you milk it for everything it’s worth or try to be choosy in order to gain some longevity?”

64. “My job is to show and tell. If I get better at showing and telling, then presumably I will get hired more.”

65. “A great man is largely forgotten by the public. He doesn’t stand on top of a mountain waving a flag saying, ‘Look at me—I’m a great man.’ A great man often disappears into the ether.”

66. “Maybe it’s a little ambitious of me to presume that no matter how big the film is, that I can always go down to the shop to buy a pint of milk.”

Tom Hardy Quotes on Love and Relationships

67. “Remove sex from a relationship and you will discover that a lot of people have nothing to offer.”

68. “I think online dating is a way of procuring people. Like Facebook and Myspace, it’s the way that people connect now and procure small children and sometimes dodgy relationships. I don’t think it’s very healthy.”

69. “A wifey isn’t just a girl who just smokes and has sex with you whenever. A wifey is a woman that motivates you and makes sure you’re not sleeping in life.”

70. “I am dating myself. I take myself out to eat. I buy myself clothes. I love me.”

71. “If you’re lucky like me, your relationship with your brother has resolved itself on the peaceful side of the fence and has stayed there. But if you’re someone who’s got a family that’s all fractured and finding it hard to relate, that’s a very sad place to be.”

72. “I love people. People are lovely creatures. I’m one myself so I love to see people happy.”

73. “Online dating is cool but I think Myspace and Facebook are a little bit off key.”

74. “I’m an actor, for f*ck’s sake. I’m an artist. I’ve played with anything and anyone. But I’m not into men sexually. I love the form and the physicality but the gay sex bit does nothing for me.To me, it just doesn’t compute to me now that I’m in my 30s and it doesn’t do it for me and I’m done experimenting.”

Tom Hardy Quotes About His Experiences

75. “I had no immediate knowledge of the world or Batman at all. I’m quite incubated. I just keep myself to myself and my dog.”

76. “I think I had only been working nine months when I got ‘Star Trek,’ and it was huge. It was very overwhelming. So that opened my eyes a bit at an early age, kind of how not to be frightened when walking into a responsibility of something like that.”

77. “It’s funny in that because it is acting, and playing pretend, but I didn’t see myself being synonymous with these tough-guy roles. That’s not really me. I love acting. There was Bane, Warrior, Bronson, and now the Krays. I’m just surprised to be working, mate. Whatever gets me through the door.”

78. “There’s an abundance of exposure when you start working in American films. Inevitably you become a brand and that has to be controlled.”

79. “My father came from an intellectual and studious avenue as opposed to a brawler’s avenue. So I had to go further afield and I brought all kinds of unscrupulous oiks back home —earless, toothless vagabonds—to teach me the arts of the old bagarre.”

80. “I’m from East Sheen, I went to public school where I learned Latin at the age of nine, and certain expectations were made of me to go to St. Paul’s, Oxbridge maybe, and all that kind of thing. And I failed systematically to meet the mark—who I am and what I should have been are two very different things.”

81. “I wanted my dad to be proud of me, and I fell into acting because there wasn’t anything else I could do, and in it I found a discipline that I wanted to keep coming back to, that I love and I learn about every day.”

82. “I mean there I was. One moment in Wandsworth Police Station on the way to Wormwood Scrubs, looking at 14 years, to this!”

83. “I was ashamed of not having any relevance, not being comfortable in my own skin. Huge ego, very low self-esteem. A lot of anger and rage and fear. It would be, ‘I’m not going to feel frightened so I’ll strangle the biggest guy in the bar and then no one will f*ck with me’. I’ll get tattoos and people will know I’m not afraid to hurt myself and they’ll be like warning signs.”

84. “I had a huge imagination. My granddad says I was a bit of a Walter Mitty character.”

85. “I play Xbox. I have a little boy to look after. I have dogs. You know, I have things to do. I would love to be able to sit down and watch something like a movie. I watch my own movies because I have to.”

86. “I’m just getting settled as a responsible man—but if you split the elephant into little mouthfuls it will be fine.”

87. “Being an only child, I didn’t have any other family but my mom and dad really, since the rest of my family lived quite far away from London.”

88. “I’m into parlor dramas. I’m into theatre. I’m trained for the stage. I trained to do Chekhov and Shakespeare, I was trained for the stage.”

89. “You know, there’s a saying amongst us in the fraternity of acting, and in the fellowship of my peer group, that if you talk about it you’re automatically out of the race. So I can’t possibly comment on that one! If I mention it, it’s gone.”

90. “I thought I’d have a little bit of a party, and I’d end up high and frightened, in places that scared me. In a blackout I could end up anywhere, I might wake up somewhere on the other side of London, or in another country or in bed with someone I didn’t know, not knowing how I got there.”

Did Tom Hardy Influence How You View Life?

Most of us always see actors as prominent and wealthy men on-screen—that they earn more than any other professional. However, Tom Hardy wants us to realize that actors are still humans who need to improve, just like us. He reminds us that we are also actors in our own stories.

What makes him more remarkable is that he manages to practice humility despite the billions he earns and all the recognition he receives. This is mainly because he grew up with a family that taught him responsibility, fellowship, and respect.

Tom Hardy teaches us a lot. His passion is reflected in his quotes which makes him a great influence to all his audience. Through him, we learn that we have to go through challenges of life to achieve and reach our desires.

How about you? What are your favorite Tom Hardy quotes? Share them in the comment section below. 

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.