With 120 inspirational and education-themed quotes, you’ll have a plethora of phrases to choose from in order to ignite a passion for learning in your classroom! Whether you choose to adorn your walls with them, print them onto bookmarks for your learners, or pop a new one onto your whiteboard each day, they’re sure to motivate and inspire all who read them. Jump right in to discover 120 marvelous classroom quotes by Dr. Seuss, Robert Frost, and so many more of the greats!
1. “The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.” – Elbert Hubbard
2. “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” – B.B. King
3. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey
4. “I am not a teacher, but an awakener.” – Robert Frost
5. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.” – Plutarch
6. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Adams
7. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
8. “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X
9. “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
10. “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” – C.S. Lewis
11. “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” – Brad Henry
12. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
13. “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” – Oprah Winfrey
14. “I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” – Albert Einstein
15. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” – Confucius
16. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
17. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward
18. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
19. “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle
20. “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese Proverb
21. “A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.” – Helen Keller
22. “The secret in education lies in respecting the student.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
23. “In learning, you will teach, and in teaching, you will learn.” – Phil Collins
24. “Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.” – Chinese Proverb
25. “Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.” – Chinese Proverb
26. “The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes
27. “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” – Mark Van Doren
28 “To teach is to learn twice over.” – Joseph Joubert
29. “Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.” – George Evans
30. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – W.B. Yeats
31. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Maimonides
32. “The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” – Alexandra K. Trenfor
33. “It takes a big heart to help shape little minds.” – Unknown
34. “The future of the world is in my classroom today.” – Ivan Welton Fitzwater
35. “I touch the future. I teach.” – Christa McAuliffe
36. “Education is not received. It is achieved.” – Albert Einstein
37. “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you.” – Dan Rather
38. “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” – George Santayana
39. “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” – Carl Rogers
40. “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein
41. “Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.” – Joyce Meyer
42. “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” – Margaret Mead
43. “The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.” – John Lubbock
44. “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai
45. “A good education is a foundation for a better future.” – Elizabeth Warren
46. “What we learn with pleasure we never forget.” – Alfred Mercier
47. “The best education is not given to students; it is drawn out of them.” – Gerald Belcher
48. “The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.” – Joseph Campbell
49. “The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think.” – James Beattie
50. “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes
51. “Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
52. “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
53. “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.” – Bob Talbert
54. “Learning is a matter of gathering knowledge; wisdom is applying that knowledge.” – Dr. Roopleen
55. “In a good book, the best is between the lines.” – Swedish Proverb
56. “The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.” – Maria Montessori
57. “Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning.” – Robert John Meehan
58. “Every student needs someone who says, simply, ‘You mean something. You count.'” – Tony Kushner
59. “It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday.” – Unknown
60. “Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual.” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
61. “Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci
62. “Education is the movement from darkness to light.” – Allan Bloom
63. “Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.” – Abraham Lincoln
64. “The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller
65. “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” – B.F. Skinner
66. “An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.” – Anatole France
67. “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.” – Abigail Adams
68. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch
69. “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” – Ignacio Estrada
70. “Education is not a tool for development – individual, community and the nation. It is the foundation for our future. It is empowerment to make choices and emboldens the youth to chase their dreams.” – Nita Ambani
71. “A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.” – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
72. “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese Proverb
73. “Teaching is the highest form of understanding.” – Aristotle
74. “What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.” – George Bernard Shaw
75. “When one teaches, two learn.” – Robert Heinlein
76. “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” – Colleen Wilcox
77. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward
78. “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” – Carl Jung
79. “The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer.” – Alice Wellington Rollins
80. “Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.” – Helen Caldicott
81. “A teacher who loves learning earns the right and the ability to help others learn.” – Ruth Beechick
82. “The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
83. “A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.” – Patricia Neal
84. “Teachers, if indeed wise, do not bid you enter the house of their wisdom, but lead you to the threshold of your own mind.” – Kahlil Gibran
85. “If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns.” – Rita Dunn
86. “You cannot open a book without learning something.” – Confucius
87. “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” – Edward Everett
88. “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” – Aristotle
89. “Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best they can possibly be.” – Rita Pierson
90. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
91. “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein
92. “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo
93. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
94. “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” – Robert Frost
95. “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” – Socrates
96. “Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” – Leonardo da Vinci
97. “A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart.” – Unknown
98. “Change is the end result of all true learning.” – Leo Buscaglia
99. “The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.” – Plato
100. “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.” – Solomon Ortiz
101. “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” – Sydney J. Harris
102. “The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.” – Michel Legrand
103. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” – Albert Einstein
104. “A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience’s attention, then he can teach his lesson.” – John Henrik Clarke
105. “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” – Victor Hugo
106. “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill
107. “Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela
108. “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai
109. “The greatest teacher I know is the job itself.” – James Cash Penney
110. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” – Andy McIntyre
111. “Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.” – Chanakya
112. “Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It’s about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life.” – Shakuntala Devi
113. “The purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” – Sydney J. Harris
114. “To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.” – A.A. Milne
115. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
116. “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” – C.S. Lewis
117. “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” – Will Durant
118. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
119. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” – Henry Ford
120. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi