“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

”—KAHLIL GIBRAN

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”—ROBERT FROST

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”―MALALA YOUSAFZAI

“I never teach my pupils. I can only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”—ALBERT
EINSTEIN

“Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.”—JAPANESE PROVERB

“What we learn with pleasure we never forget.”—ALFRED MERCIER

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”—B.B. KING

“The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as every child should be given the
wish to learn.”—JOHN LUBBOCK

“To teach is to learn twice over.”—JOSEPH JOUBERT

60 Inspiring Teacher Quotes to Motivate Educators

May 30, 2018

Justin Raudys

All Posts

Category

Inspiration

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All teachers cherish the feeling: The thrill of inspiration that comes from inspiring others. But whether it
be writing report cards or managing the classroom, daily stresses can make it hard to keep that
inspiration alive.

We’ve dug through dozens of books, teacher magazines, Pinterest boards, and other blogs to find 60 of
our favorite motivational quotes for teachers. Re-energize your day or week with these inspiring quotes
from some of the world's greatest educators and thinkers!

Quotes on the characteristics of great teaching

quotes-on-teaching

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great
teacher inspires.

― William Arthur Ward

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

― Sidney J. Harris

In an effective classroom, students should not only know what they are doing, they should also know
why and how.

― Harry Wong

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

― Gail Godwin

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

The need for imagination, as a sense of truth, and as a feeling of responsibility -- these are the three
forces which are the very nerve of education.

― Rudolf Steiner

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.

― Albert Einstein

Teaching is an instinctual art, mindful of potential, craving of realizations, a pausing, seamless process.

― A. Bartlett Giamatti

The teacher’s task is to initiate the learning process and then get out of the way.

― John Warren

A teacher affects eternity; he [or she] can never tell where his influence stops.

― Henry B. Adams

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty
years.
― Jacques Barzun

The greatest use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

― William James

Thirty-one chances. Thirty-one futures, our futures. It’s an almost psychotic feeling, believing that part
of their lives belongs to me. Everything they become, I also become. And everything about me, they
helped to create.

― Esme Raji Codell

Teachers are people who start things they never see finished, and for which they never get thanks until
it is too late.

― Max Forman

Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honor than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the
latter provided mere life, while the former ensured a good life.

― Aristotle

What greater joy can a teacher feel than to witness a child’s success?

― Michelle L. Graham

The best education is not given to students; it is drawn out of them.

― Gerald Belcher

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

― Albert Einstein

Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.

― Josef Albers

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 which he finds it hard to answer.

― Alice Wellington Rollins

It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts...it is
to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.

― Robert Hutchins

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60 Inspiring Teacher Quotes to Motivate Educators

May 30, 2018

Justin Raudys
All Posts

Category

Inspiration

Facebook Social icon

Twitter Social icon

LinkedIn Social icon

All teachers cherish the feeling: The thrill of inspiration that comes from inspiring others. But whether it
be writing report cards or managing the classroom, daily stresses can make it hard to keep that
inspiration alive.

We’ve dug through dozens of books, teacher magazines, Pinterest boards, and other blogs to find 60 of
our favorite motivational quotes for teachers. Re-energize your day or week with these inspiring quotes
from some of the world's greatest educators and thinkers!

Quotes on the characteristics of great teaching

quotes-on-teaching

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great
teacher inspires.

― William Arthur Ward

Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.

― Sidney J. Harris

In an effective classroom, students should not only know what they are doing, they should also know
why and how.
― Harry Wong

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

― Gail Godwin

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

The need for imagination, as a sense of truth, and as a feeling of responsibility -- these are the three
forces which are the very nerve of education.

― Rudolf Steiner

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.

― Albert Einstein

Teaching is an instinctual art, mindful of potential, craving of realizations, a pausing, seamless process.

― A. Bartlett Giamatti

The teacher’s task is to initiate the learning process and then get out of the way.
― John Warren

Quotes about teaching's lasting impact

quotes-about-teaching-children

A teacher affects eternity; he [or she] can never tell where his influence stops.

― Henry B. Adams

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty
years.

― Jacques Barzun

The greatest use of a life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

― William James

Thirty-one chances. Thirty-one futures, our futures. It’s an almost psychotic feeling, believing that part
of their lives belongs to me. Everything they become, I also become. And everything about me, they
helped to create.

― Esme Raji Codell

Teachers are people who start things they never see finished, and for which they never get thanks until
it is too late.

― Max Forman
Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honor than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the
latter provided mere life, while the former ensured a good life.

― Aristotle

What greater joy can a teacher feel than to witness a child’s success?

― Michelle L. Graham

Quotes about teaching students to think critically

2018-03-14---Teacher-with-students-and-balloon

The best education is not given to students; it is drawn out of them.

― Gerald Belcher

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

― Albert Einstein

Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.

― Josef Albers

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 which he finds it hard to answer.
― Alice Wellington Rollins

It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts...it is
to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.

― Robert Hutchins

Quotes about the difficulty of teaching

motivational-quotes-for-teaching

Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is.

― William Glasser

A pro is someone who can do great work when he doesn't feel like it.

― Alastair Cook

Education...is a painful, continual, and difficult work to be done in kindness, by watching, by warning...by
praise, but above all, by example.

― John Ruskin

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

― Jacques Barzun
Teaching is the only major occupation...for which we have not developed tools that make an average
person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the naturals, the ones who
somehow know how to teach.

― Peter Drucker

Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times
they accomplish this impossible task.

― Haim Ginott

We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of
interest to us. We already know more than we need to know in order to do that. Whether or not we do
it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact we haven't so far.

― Ron Edmonds

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

― Malcolm Forbes

Among the many purposes of schooling, four stand out to us as having special moral value: to love and
care, to serve, to empower and, of course, to learn.

― Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan

The most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and
the significance of his life to himself and to others. This is the basic architecture of a life; the rest is
ornamentation and decoration of the structure.
― Grayson Kirk

No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a
child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.

― Emma Goldman

The object of teaching a child is to enable him [or her] to get along without his [or her] teacher.

― Elbert Hubbard

Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone’s knowing how to bring about a better
condition of things than existed earlier.

― John Dewey

The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do
useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community -- these are the most
vital things education must try to produce.

― Virginia Gildersleeve

Education is much more than a matter of imparting the knowledge and skills by which narrow goals are
achieved. It is also about opening the child’s eyes to the needs and rights of others.

― Dalai Lama
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 a vital element for the
growing plant and for the soul of the child.

― Carl Jung