77 Badass Clint Eastwood Quotes To Become Wiser In Life

One of the greatest figures in film history, Clint Eastwood has straddled the twin worlds of directing and acting for many years. Through versatility, his wisdom continues to expand allowing him to leave the lessons lingering behind every speaking opportunity.

Clint Eastwood was born in 1930 in California and is an American actor, film director, composer and producer. His break didn’t come quickly after his first audition in 1954 for Six Bridges to Cross was unsuccessful. This string of knock-backs continued until he landed a minor role in Revenge of the Creature. His big break however, came in 1958 when Eastwood landed a major part in the TV Western Rawhide.

His popularity increased when he starred as the Man with No Name in Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns during the mid 1960’s. His streak continued as the anti-hero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

While maintaining leading roles, Eastwood turned to directing simultaneously in films such as Play Misty for Me, High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales. Some of his well known directed films include Unforgiven in 1992, Mystic River in 2003, Million Dollar Baby in 2004, Changeling in 2008 and American Sniper in 2014.

His success throughout across the entire film industry continued to grow with accumulated accolades spanning over decades.  These include four Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, three Cesar Awards and an AFI Life Achievement Award.

With decades of significant achievements, Eastwood become a testament to his own belief that whatever one puts into their life, one gets out of it. No doubt he has gathered plenty of knowledge across his award-winning career which remain inspirational and relevant for society today, and the future generation.  

1. Some people feel that the world owes them a living.

Clint Eastwood

2. I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.

Clint Eastwood

3. I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

Clint Eastwood

4. You should never give up your inner self.

Clint Eastwood

5. I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

Clint Eastwood

6. What you put into life is what you get out of it.

Clint Eastwood

7. Actors know, with me they aren’t going to be allowed to rehearse a scene for a couple of hours and then get away with doing 25 takes before we get it right. So they come with their full bag of tricks.

Clint Eastwood

8. If I was not a dreamer, I would have achieved nothing.

Clint Eastwood

9. I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.

Clint Eastwood

10. Fate pulls you in different directions.

Clint Eastwood

11. I don’t mind telling a dark side.

Clint Eastwood

12. I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

Clint Eastwood

13. We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has.

Clint Eastwood

14. Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

Clint Eastwood

15. I guess maybe when you get past 70, other people start asking you how you feel.

Clint Eastwood

16. Man becomes his most creative during war.

Clint Eastwood

17. Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.

Clint Eastwood

18. There’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.

Clint Eastwood

19. I’m a mentor to anybody who’s interested.

Clint Eastwood

20. There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.

Clint Eastwood

21. If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

Clint Eastwood

22. Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

Clint Eastwood

23. I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.

Clint Eastwood

24. I’m not afraid to look bad on the screen.

Clint Eastwood

25. I’ve taken advantage of a few breaks that came along and moved along with them.

Clint Eastwood

26. God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.

Clint Eastwood

27. I do believe in self-help.

Clint Eastwood

28. My dad was fiscally conservative, and I was influenced by that. He didn’t believe in spending more than you had because it gets you into trouble.

Clint Eastwood

29. It’s always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.

Clint Eastwood

30. Society has made us believe you should look like an 18-year-old model all your life.

Clint Eastwood

31. When I see a story, I ask: is this something I’d like to be in? Is this something I’d like to see? And if I’d like to see it, would I like to tell it?

Clint Eastwood

32. The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits.

Clint Eastwood

33. It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people’s lives.

Clint Eastwood

34. I’m not a regrets-type person.

Clint Eastwood

35. I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

Clint Eastwood

36. Everybody accuses me of moving fast when I direct a picture. I don’t move fast, but I just keep moving.

Clint Eastwood

37. It would be great to be 105 and still making films.

Clint Eastwood

38. You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.

Clint Eastwood

39. Every story has its demands.

Clint Eastwood

40. If you ever go to a music session, you’ll notice that the musicians can sit down and start playing right away, and everyone knows what to do. Of course they’re reading it, but the conductor can tweak little things, and you can take that back to directing motion pictures.

Clint Eastwood

41. Respect your efforts, respect yourself.

Clint Eastwood

42. My whole life has been one big improvisation.

Clint Eastwood

43. If you’re doing a biography, you try to stay as accurate as possible to reality. But you really don’t know what was going on in the person’s mind. You just know what was going on in the minds of people around him.

Clint Eastwood

44. If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

Clint Eastwood

45. There’s only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I’ll get married again.

Clint Eastwood

46. We boil at different degrees.

Clint Eastwood

47. I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

Clint Eastwood

48. You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.

Clint Eastwood

49. I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.

Clint Eastwood

50. Whether you like it or not, you’re forced to come to the realization that death is out there. But I don’t fear death, I’m a fatalist. I believe when it’s your time, that’s it. It’s the hand you’re dealt.

Clint Eastwood

51. There has to be something in every role that interests you.

Clint Eastwood

52. In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don’t try to play younger than I really am.

Clint Eastwood

53. I’ve always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves.

Clint Eastwood

54. When you’re young, you’re very reckless. Then you get conservative. Then you get reckless again.

Clint Eastwood

55. I’m a day-to-day-type person.

Clint Eastwood

56. I’m just a kid – I’ve got a lot of stuff to do yet.

Clint Eastwood

57. As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

Clint Eastwood

58. Let’s put it this way: there wouldn’t be much point in me attending a high-school reunion now because there wouldn’t be anybody there. We’d struggle to raise a quorum.

Clint Eastwood

59. You can’t stop everything from happening. But we’ve gotten to a point where we’re certainly trying. If a car doesn’t have four hundred air bags in it, then it’s no good.

Clint Eastwood

60. I just think it is important that you realize, that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

Clint Eastwood

61. I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality.

Clint Eastwood

62. Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

Clint Eastwood

63. As you get older, you’re not afraid of doubt. Doubt isn’t running the show. You take out all the self-agonizing.

Clint Eastwood

64. Men must know their limitations.

Clint Eastwood

65. I’m interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.

Clint Eastwood

66. I think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don’t have a toy, they’ll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time.

Clint Eastwood

67. Participating in a gun buyback program because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids.

Clint Eastwood

68. I’ve had no problem harnessing anger.

Clint Eastwood

69. You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.

Clint Eastwood

70. I have worked ever since I was 13.

Clint Eastwood

71. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

Clint Eastwood

72. I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

Clint Eastwood

73. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage. They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’ — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.

Clint Eastwood

74. I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.

Clint Eastwood

75. I probably would have retired years ago if I hadn’t found interesting things to do.

Clint Eastwood

76. The less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.

Clint Eastwood

77. I guess I’m living in the present more than the past.

Clint Eastwood