Robert Downey Jr. is an American A-List actor who is known for his charisma, confidence and wit.
Even though he was born into the film business he has had to work hard and has continuously reinvented himself to remain fresh, vibrant and prominent for over four decades.
His career has included critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal difficulties, and a resurgence of commercial success in middle age, where he is better known for playing Tony Stark in Marvel’s hugely successful Iron Man and Avengers movies.
And as of 2018, Downey is the third highest-grossing U.S. domestic box-office star of all time, with an estimated net worth of $260 million.
Robert Downey Jr. overcame drug and alcohol addiction to comeback as one of Hollywood’s most respected and successful actors of all time. He is highly articulate on a variety of subjects, optimistic and remains humble despite his success.
Below I’ve put together a collection of awesome Robert Downey Jr. quotes so that you can get an insight the mindset that made him successful.
45 Robert Downey Jr. Quotes
1. “Worrying is like praying for something that you don’t want to happen.” – Robert Downey Jr.
2. “Sometimes you just gotta be drop-kicked out of the nest.” – Robert Downey Jr.
3. “The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven.” – Robert Downey Jr.
4. “I know very little about acting. I am just an incredibly gifted faker.” – Robert Downey Jr.
5. “Look, even bad years are pretty good years, I think.” – Robert Downey Jr.
6. “You need to know what to do when the sun is not shining.” – Robert Downey Jr.
7. “Do I want to be a hero to my son? No. I would like to be a very real human being. That’s hard enough.” – Robert Downey Jr.
8. “I think you end up doing the stuff you were supposed to do at the time you were supposed to do it.” – Robert Downey Jr.
9. “I think that we all do heroic things, but hero is not a noun, it’s a verb.” – Robert Downey Jr.
10. “I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you’ve done.” – Robert Downey Jr.
11. “I always think part of success is being able to replicate results, taking what is interesting or viable about yourself as a professional person and seeing if you bring it into different situations with similar results.” – Robert Downey Jr.
12. “With a terrible script, you hustle and try to make it better. But with a good script it can be trouble because you rest on your laurels, so to speak, you think it’s going to translate easily.” – Robert Downey Jr.
13. “There are some parents who have really done it right and told their kid, You know, we have this dough, none of this is for you. You have to get your own.” – Robert Downey Jr.
14. “All I want, and I think all any parent with a semblance of a moral psychology wants, is for my kid to have his own experience, uninhibited.” – Robert Downey Jr.
15. “People never change because they are under threat or under duress. Never. They change because they see something that makes their life seem valuable enough to start moving toward a life worth living.” – Robert Downey Jr.
16. “Remember that just because you hit bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.” – Robert Downey Jr.
17. “Mediocrity is my biggest fear. I’m not afraid of total failure because I don’t think that will happen. I’m not afraid of success because that beats the hell out of failure. It’s being in the middle that scares me.” – Robert Downey Jr.
18. “Nothing will serve you better than a strong work ethic. Nothing.” – Robert Downey Jr.
19. “One must always be mindful.” – Robert Downey Jr.
20. “I think it’s good to be confident. If I’m not on my team why should anybody else be?” – Robert Downey Jr.
21. “The higher the stakes, the happier I am, the better I will be.” – Robert Downey Jr.
22. “People rise out of the ashes because, at some point, they are invested with a belief in the possibility of triumph over seemingly impossible odds.” – Robert Downey Jr.
23. “I have a sense of destiny that you are led to the things you are supposed to do.” – Robert Downey Jr.
24. “Growing up is something that you do your whole life. I want to always feel that I can be a kid if I want.” – Robert Downey Jr.
25. “Discipline for me is about respect. It’s not even about self-respect; it’s about respect for life and all it offers.” – Robert Downey Jr.
26. “At the end of the day, anything I think I’m sacrificing I’m just giving up because it makes me feel better.” – Robert Downey Jr.
27. “I used to be so convinced that happiness was the goal, yet all those years I was chasing after it I was unhappy in the pursuit. Maybe the goal really should be a life that values honor, duty, good work, friends, and family.” – Robert Downey Jr.
28. “I’ve always felt that if you’re not on your side, why should anyone else be. So I always encourage people to be confident, and sometime even a little falsely so, just so you can give yourself an opportunity.” – Robert Downey Jr.
29. “Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever the f*&k you were gonna do anyway.” – Robert Downey Jr.
30. “Job one is to get out of that cave. A lot of people do get out but don’t change.” – Robert Downey Jr.
31. “There’s somewhere you’re supposed to go, and if you get quiet enough, you’ll make it.” – Robert Downey Jr.
32. “Nothing is a break for me. Not even the breaks are breaks.” – Robert Downey Jr.
33. “Whenever I watch someone doing something, even if it doesn’t turn out so great, I at least admire their intentions and stuff.” – Robert Downey Jr.
34. “There is unpanned gold in every soul you run into, no matter what walk of life they are from.” – Robert Downey Jr.
35. “There’s a little bit of asshole in every nice guy, and there’s a little bit of genius in every moron.” – Robert Downey Jr.
36. “Nothing will serve you better than a strong work ethic. Nothing. And it’s something that you can’t teach. You have to be thrown into it, where you’re going to sink or swim. It’s amazing how self-correcting and how clarifying a good, hard, shitty job can be. Because at the end of the day, any profession I’ve seen anybody in, when you peer behind the curtains of ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be a great job? Wow, what an amazing thing, a philanthropic endeavor!’ it really just comes down to ‘It’s a f**king grind.” – Robert Downey Jr.
37. “It’s really not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems…what’s hard is to decide.” – Robert Downey Jr.
38. “I understand reversal of fortune; that usually has come through my own hand, but you know, you live life on life’s terms.” – Robert Downey Jr.
39. “It’s hard to get out of the barrel. It’s slippery around the edges and people are happy to see you fall back in.” – Robert Downey Jr.
40. “Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.” – Robert Downey Jr.
41. “The old saying is true, behind every good man there’s an incredible woman.” – Robert Downey Jr.
42. “I’m not a poster boy for good behavior and recovery in Hollywood, I’m just a guy who knows he has a lot to be grateful for.” – Robert Downey Jr.
43. “The greatest thing my dad taught me came from when I called him from a phone booth and said, ‘Hungry. No bus token. Please. Out of options.’ He said, ‘Pfft, get a job.” – Robert Downey Jr.
44. “I am in the continual process of transcending fear-based rituals.” – Robert Downey Jr.
45. “I guess the main thing is, you unconsciously take things for granted, and you think the audience is with you, because you’re with yourself.” – Robert Downey Jr.
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