Quotes About Teaching

Feeling inspired to become a teacher? Let these inspiring teaching quotes set the tone for your next lesson plan! In this video, we compiled our favorite quotes from some of the most influential educators in history. From Aristotle to Thoreau, you'll find uplifting words to share with your students and peers. Whether you're looking for motivation or just want to spread some positivity.

1. One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world. Malala Yousafzai
2. Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.  Aristotle
3. Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task. Haim Ginott
4. A child miseducated is a child lost.  John F. Kennedy
5. Emeralds as well as glass will shine, when the light is shed on them.  Japanese Saying
6. A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. Brad Henry
7. Teaching is the greatest act of optimism. Colleen Wilcox
8. Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. Jacques Barzun
9. Education is more than a luxury; it is a responsibility that society owes to itself.  Robin Cook
10. He who opens a school door, closes a prison.  Victor Hugo
11. Teaching is not a profession; it's a passion. Unknown
12. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams
13. The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don't tell you what to see. Alexandra K. Trenfor
14. Teaching reading is rocket science.  Louisa Moats
15. The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.  Unknown
16. In teaching others, we teach ourselves. Proverb
17. The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you learned this afternoon.  Anonymous
18. Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges. Joyce Meyer
19. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward
20. You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.  Galileo Galilei
21. Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. Roger Lewin
22. The best teachers are those who encourage their students to be their best selves. Unknown
23. Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions. Unknown
24. The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. Mark Van Doren
25. The best education is not given to students; it is drawn out of them. Gerald Belcher
26. 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
27. The best teachers are those who, pass on their passion, for a subject. Unknown
28. The teacher who is indeed wise, does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. Kahlil Gibran
29. The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves. Joseph Campbell
30. The object of teaching a child is to enable him or her to get along without their teacher. Elbert Hubbard
31. The teacher is the heart of the educational system. Sidney Hook
32. The secret in education lies in respecting the student.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
33. The true aim of everyone who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds. Frederick William Robertson
34. The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner. Elbert Hubbard
35. We should not teach children the sciences but give them a taste for them.  Jean Jacques Rosseau
36. There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.  John Adams
37. A true teacher would never tell you what to do. But he would give you the knowledge with which you could decide what would be best for you to do. Christopher Reeve
38. Being able to help someone learn something is a talent.  Margaret Riel
39. If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns.  Rita Dunn
40. Education is an imprecise process, a dance, and a collaborative experience.  Siva Vaidhyanathan
41. Good teachers are the ones who are the hardest on themselves. Unknown
42. I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.  Albert Einstein
43. Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre. Gail Godwin
44. Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
45. Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together. Scott Hayden
46. The best teacher is the one who suggests, rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
47. Instruction ends in the school room, but education ends only with life.  Frederick W.Robertson
48. The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.  Malcolm S. Forbes
49. You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  Clay P. Bedford
50. The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate 'apparently ordinary' people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people. K. Patricia Cross
51. Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students. Solomon Ortiz
52. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
53. Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.  Josef Albers
54. Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning. Unknown
55. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.  Nelson Mandela
56. Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.  George Evans
57. Teaching is not about answering questions but about raising questions - opening doors for them in places that they could not imagine. Yawar Baig
58. Teaching is not just about imparting knowledge, it's also about inspiring change. William Pollard
59. Teaching is not about what you know, but about what you can get others to know. Unknown
60. Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers, in their way, are holy angels leading their flocks out of the darkness. Jeannette Walls