Hank Green is an American YouTuber, science communicator, and New York Times bestselling author who has become one of the most influential voices on the internet.
Since 2007, Hank and his brother John Green have taken turns creating videos on their YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers. Over the course of the last 15 years, the Green brothers have built a passionate community of "Nerdfighters."
While there are many things that unite the Nerdfighter community, they share a common goal of "decreasing world suck." (In fact, John and Hank Green founded the nonprofit, The Foundation to Decrease World Suck.)
And decrease world suck they have.
Every year, John and Hank Green host The Project for Awesome — a 48-hour charity event that has raised more than $14 million for a variety of charities since 2007. And they also sell Pizza John merch for Pizzamas to raise more money for charity.
And in 2019, John and Hank committed to raising $25 million for Partners in Health to support health care and decrease maternal death rates in Sierra Leone. (You may also love these meaningful quotes from Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer.)
Together, John and Hank created Good.Store, the Awesome Socks Club, the Awesome Coffee Club, and Sun Basin Soap to help raise funds for Partners in Health.
Additionally, Hank's content across Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok is humorous, informative, and helps people better understand their world. And as an early internet video creator, he has continually advocated in support of other internet creators around the world.
As the founder/co-founder of Crash Course, SciShow, and dozens of other ventures, Hank Green has significantly influenced millions through the education system and internet culture.
Through his years as a public figure, Hank Green has continually maintained a sense of hope and optimism about how we can each make a positive difference in the world. And in doing so, he's inspired millions to do just that.
→ Related: The Best John Green Quotes
Get inspired by Hank Green’s best quotes from YouTube, his books, Tumblr, TikTok, and more:
“Humanity is good. Some people are terrible and broken, but humanity is good. I believe that.”
― Hank Green
“No one changes the world alone and no one doesn’t change it at all. We are all exceptional, and none of us are.”
— Hank Green
“You might never know what you’re doing. But do me this favor, get out of bed every morning knowing that no one changes the world alone, and no one doesn’t change it at all.
We are exceptional, and none of us are, and we are all lost sometimes. So follow a path, any path, until you get to a place that you feel like you don’t like, and then change directions.
Because there is one thing that you are making everyday, and that is yourself. That is your job, and you must do it well.
For me, there’s a lot of strength in knowing that the wandering I am doing and that I have done is normal, and kind of beautiful, and not something I should be stressed out about.
You’re on a path, you don’t know where it’s going, and that would be boring if you did.”
— Hank Green
“Being silly is still allowed, not excluded by adulthood. What’s excluded by adulthood is thoughtlessness, so be thoughtful and silly.”
― Hank Green, Vlobrothers, “Some Rough Advice for the ‘Real World’”
“You will always struggle with not feeling productive until you accept that your own joy can be something you produce. It is not the only thing you will make, nor should it be, but it is something valuable and beautiful.”
— Hank Green
“Both my greatest successes and my greatest failures have come because I trusted that people were good. I’m almost always right. It’s just really bad when I'm not.”
— Hank Green
“Worrying isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom of caring.”
— Hank Green, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
“Even on this most terrible days, even when the worst of us are all we can think of, I am proud to be a human.”
― Hank Green, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
“It turns out, somehow, there are a tremendous number of things to be optimistic about.”
― Hank Green
“The most impactful thing you can do with power is almost always to give it away.”
— Hank Green, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
“A young lady asked me how I dealt with bullying. I wasn’t able to give her a very good answer, which troubles me.
Well, there were lots of shouts of “It gets better” and “Stay strong” and “We love you”. But when I put myself back in time to when I was being bullied, none of those things would’ve helped me. Yes, absolutely it does get better. But when you are being physically and psychologically tortured, it is difficult to remove yourself from the pressingness of the moment at hand.
Here’s how I dealt with bullying: I cried, I hated myself, I hated my life. I didn’t deal with it, I survived it, but I never dealt with it.
So here are two tips from someone with lots of experience:
1: It’s not about you, it has nothing to do with you, it’s about the assholes doing it to you.
2: Your job is not to deal with it, your job is to survive it, which you CAN do because it WILL end. And then yes, it will get better.”
― Hank Green
“The story of humanity is not a story of a few people who had huge, gigantic effects on the world. That’s only the story we hear, because it’s the easy story to tell. Caring for ourselves and other people is the only thing that has ever mattered to the future of our species.”
― Hank Green
“We are the superhero. None of us, individually, but all of us together.”
― Hank Green
“Some days, it seems to me like the purpose of life is to convert energy into beauty.”
— Hank Green
“It’s such a cool story that Paul Newman was like, “I like making salad dressing, but I’m good [financially].” It just shows that working hard doesn’t have to be about getting rich or more rich or whatever. It’s about adding value to the world.”
― Hank Green
“Stories, of course, are an easy thing to love. They’re how we understand the world ... how we pass information from person to person. I’m serious when I say that I think stories are a bit part of what makes us human.”
— Hank Green, on NerdCon
“Hank Green’s Secrets of Productivity:
1.) I have convinced myself that if I am not using all of the tools I have in my disposal to do the maximum amount of good... then I am less of a good person than I could otherwise could be...
2.) I intentionally put myself in situations where people who I care about and who I respect rely on me to do things, which is very motivating...
3.) I don’t get caught up in doing everything perfectly... I just want to try stuff and if it explodes... it exploded! And I learned!
4.) I love giving other people responsibility. I love putting them in difficult situations and saying: “Figure this out. Help me do this.” And if they do it wrong or if they do it differently than how I would have done it, I don’t get mad as long as they’re learning, because there’s no way to get good at stuff except to do it and fail and learn...
5.) I follow and cultivate my own curiosity. I think curiosity is one of the top two or three human characteristics. It’s something that I really like about myself. ... I want to understand stuff! I want to understand people! Following my curiosity so frequently leads me to better life decisions and better business decisions but also - just feeling better! You/’re never going to feel bad about your whole life if you loved people and you were curious. I mean, that’s kind of all I want!”
― Hank Green
“Read books. Care about things. Get excited. Try not to be too down on yourself. Enjoy the ever present game of knowing.”
— Hank Green
“There is one thing that I can definitely say about the world as it exists right now: We are, at this moment, both creating and solving problems faster than we ever have before. So your job — the only thing anyone can ask of you as a human — is to solve more problems than you create. (Also take care of yourself and have a good time, ideally.) But you are very powerful, and you can make your world and yourself better. So do that.”
— Hank Green, Vlogbrothers, Hello Future Dead Person
DFTBA. Don’t forget to be awesome.
