50 Tom Hanks Quotes From Hollywood’s Nicest Actor

Our latest collection of great Tom Hanks quotes about acting, movies, life, and more.

Enjoy!

Tom Hanks has had an incredible career in Hollywood, playing some of the most iconic roles, including Forrest Gump, Fred Rogers, and Woody from Toy Story.

What kind of salary does Tom Hanks earn for acting?

Well, he has reportedly made anywhere from $50,000 to $60 million for some of his gigs.

His net worth is around $400 million, with some of those earnings coming from his production company, Playtone.

Tom Hanks isn’t just popular because he is a great actor.

He is also an inspiration to many, and these Tom Hanks quotes illustrate just how amazing a person he is.

In fact, he is often called the nicest man in Hollywood, or ‘America’s Dad.’

Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson have been married for over 30 years, which is not only a phenomenal feat in star marriages but in marriages in general!

His own parents divorced when he was young, and he moved around a lot as a kid.

He has said that he “lived in 10 different homes by the age of 10.”

He tried college but realized that wasn’t the path for him.

In his own words, Hanks was “an underachieving student with lousy SAT scores” by the time he graduated from high school in 1974.

After that, he attended Chabot College, a community college in Hayward, California “because it accepted everyone and was free.”

He then transferred to Sacramento State but dropped out a year later.

Proving that sometimes the things we view as failures can be turning points for greatness, Tom landed his first role in 1980.

That role only paid him $800 and look where he is today!

Enjoy these Tom Hanks quotes!

Don’t forget to also check out these Forrest Gump quotes on life and happiness.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Check out more inspirational quotes on our motivational quotes category page.

Inspirational Tom Hanks movie quotes

1. “If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.” — Tom Hanks

You will also enjoy our article on Toy Story quotes.

2. “Well, as with anything, if you want to believe you can find reasons to.” — Tom Hanks

3. “You can always try to do something. Keep moving forward. Keep trying stuff.” — Tom Hanks

You will also enjoy our article on Bad Santa quotes.

4. “Being kind always works.” — Tom Hanks

5. “There’s millions of survivors out there. Make it one million and one.” — Tom Hanks

6. “Help publicly. Help privately. Help make sense where sense has gone missing. Help science to solve and faith to soothe. Help, and you will abolish apathy — the void that is so quickly filled by ignorance and evil.” — Tom Hanks

You will also enjoy our article on Saving Private Ryan quotes.

7. “The only way you can truly control how you are seen is by being honest all the time.” — Tom Hanks

8. If you can feel like a good man in your 40s, you can feel like a better man in your 50s, a Superman in your 60s, and maybe a Spider-Man in your 70s.” —Tom Hanks

9. “Believing is seeing and seeing is believing.” — Tom Hanks

10. “Never give up because you never know what the tide will bring in the next day.” — Tom Hanks

11. “If you’re funny, if there’s something that makes you laugh, then every day’s going to be okay.” — Tom Hanks

12. “As long as you as an individual… can convince yourself that in order to move forward as best you can you have to be optimistic, you can be described as ‘one of the faithful,’ one of those people who can say, ‘Well, look, something’s going to happen! Let’s just keep trying. Let’s not give up.’” — Tom Hanks

13. “A hero is somebody who voluntarily walks into the unknown.” — Tom Hanks

14. “You learn more from getting your butt kicked than getting it kissed.” — Tom Hanks

15. “Even the simplest choice can make a jaw-dropping difference in our world.” — Tom Hanks

You will also enjoy our article on Spiderman quotes.

Famouse Tom Hanks quotes about loneliness and being alone

16. “But the battles against loneliness that I fought when I was 16 are very different from those I fought when I was 27, and those are very different from the ones I fight at 44.” — Tom Hanks

17. “Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema has the power to make you not feel lonely, even when you are.” — Tom Hanks

18. “There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness. I can understand the concept of being a monk for a while.” — Tom Hanks

19. “But I also think all of the great stories in literature deal with loneliness. Sometimes it’s by way of heartbreak, sometimes it’s by way of injustice, sometimes it’s by way of fate. There’s an infinite number of ways to examine it.” — Tom Hanks

20. “As a young man, even if I was going to see a play or a film by myself, I didn’t feel like I was alone. There was something that was unfolding up there that brought me into it. And I recognized that. For those two hours, it made me feel like I belonged to something really good.” — Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks quotes about movies and being an actor

21. “I’ve made over 20 movies, and 5 of them are good.” — Tom Hanks

22. “Movie-making is telling a story with the best technology at your disposal.” — Tom Hanks

23. “The truth is that everyone pays attention to who’s number one at the box office. And none of it matters because the only thing that really exists is the connection the audience has with a movie.” — Tom Hanks

24. “It’s just as hard… staying happily married as it is doing movies.” — Tom Hanks

25. “At the end of the day it’s got to be a good movie, it’s got to be a funny movie, and it’s got to make people think, ‘Hey, I couldn’t have spent my time any better.'” — Tom Hanks

26. “Acting still rings my bell as much as it did in high school. Plus, I can now indulge my interests as a producer as well. My work is more fun than fun but, best of all, it’s still very scary. You are always walking some kind of high wire.” — Tom Hanks

27. “For some people, I will be Forrest Gump for the rest of my life. But that’s OK; that’s a good thing.” — Tom Hanks

28. “And then it was like, wait, you can go to college and study theater? And act in plays? This is almost a racket, you know. And then when the opportunity came along to do it professionally, I thought I’d won the lottery.” — Tom Hanks

29. “Actors with political views are a dime a dozen.” — Tom Hanks

30. “As an actor, I am always waiting for my luck to run out.” — Tom Hanks

31. “Even if a story has nothing to do with my life, if I can recognize something of myself in the character and think, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what I’d do…’ Yeah, that’s what I look for.” — Tom Hanks

32. “If you look at romantic comedies as pieces of commerce, the audience is looking for wish fulfillment.” — Tom Hanks

33. “I love what I do for a living, it’s the greatest job in the world, but you have to survive an awful lot of attention that you don’t truly deserve and you have to live up to your professional responsibilities and I’m always trying to balance that with what is really important.” — Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks quotes about people and life

34. “Some people go to bed at night thinking, ‘That was a good day.’ I am one of those who worries and asks, ‘How did I screw up today?'” — Tom Hanks

35. “Some people are cowards… I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards, and a third are heroes. Now, a villain and a coward can choose to be a hero, but they’ve got to make that choice.” — Tom Hanks

36. “I think 80 percent of the population are really great, caring people who will help you and tell you the truth. That’s just the way it is. And I think 20 percent of the population are crooks and liars. It’s just a fact.” — Tom Hanks

37. “May you live as long as you want and not want as long as you live.” — Tom Hanks

38. “Human beings do things for a reason, even if sometimes it’s the wrong reason.” — Tom Hanks

39. “Humans are by nature too complicated to be understood fully. So, we can choose either to approach our fellow human beings with suspicion or to approach them with an open mind, a dash of optimism, and a great deal of candor.” — Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks quotes about himself

40. “I went to college because I didn’t have anywhere else to go and it was a fabulous hang. And while I was there I was exposed to this world that I didn’t know was possible.” — Tom Hanks

41. “I think it’s better to feel good than to look good.” — Tom Hanks

42. “I understand the concept of optimism. But I think with me what you get is a lack of cynicism.” — Tom Hanks

43. “When I was 21 years old, I had a job playing Santa Claus in a shopping center in Sacramento. I was rail-thin, so it’s not like I was a traditional Santa Claus even then. I had a square stomach; that was the shape of the sofa cushion that I had stuffed into my pants.” — Tom Hanks

44. “I want to have a good time myself. I don’t want to dread going to work no matter what the gig is. I think, selfishly, I will make sure that I have a good time; how about that?” — Tom Hanks

45. “No journalist has ever been in my house and no photographs have ever been taken of where I live. I don’t parade my family out for display, which is the way it will stay.” — Tom Hanks

46. “E-mail is far more convenient than the telephone, as far as I’m concerned. I would throw my phone away if I could get away with it.” — Tom Hanks

47. “I am who I am, and I think I have a good nature, by and large. But if someone takes advantage of that good nature, well then, you know, I’m not that nice a guy.” — Tom Hanks

48. “I will entertain anything; it doesn’t matter. You know, it’s not obviously about the price, it’s not about who, it’s kind of about when and what. It’s material, that’s all.” — Tom Hanks

49. I would not want to live in a country that would have me as a leader in any sort of political bent.” — Tom Hanks

50. “It’s always a combination of physics and poetry that I find inspiring. It’s hard to wrap your head around things like the Hubble scope.” — Tom Hanks

Which of these Tom Hanks quotes is your favorite?

A lot of these Tom Hanks quotes are about kindness and helping others, so it isn’t surprising that he has reputation for being one of the nicest people around.

One New York Times journalist who interviewed him said, “He doesn’t appear to have a need to be known by his public, but he also doesn’t have the same strains of contempt for journalists that I’ve seen from other movie stars.”

She also said that talking to him helped her “heal from her depression.”

During another interview with a station affiliate, he saw their carpet was not in great shape and wrote a check to pay for a new carpet.

While Tom Hanks was filming Angels and Demons, there was a bride and her father who couldn’t get to the chapel due to the chaos.

He stopped filming and escorted them to the chapel himself! That had to make her wedding day even more of a day to remember.

I can’t imagine anyone other than Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rodgers, another kind-hearted and service-driven man.

What is your favorite role that has been played by Tom Hanks?

Do you have any other favorite Tom Hanks quotes and sayings you would like to share?

Let us know in the comment section below.