These positive teacher quotes can be useful if you are looking for inspirational words to write in a card for a teacher, although the quotes also cover other aspects of teaching too. The quotes on this page are all from known sources, there are few more words of wisdom on the Teacher Sayings page that are from unknown sources.
Although we generally think of ‘Teachers’ as the adults who instruct children in schools, we are all teachers as we travel through life. Those who become parents take on the greatest ‘teaching’ role with their every thought, word and deed shaping the character and future of their child.
Teacher quotes are listed alphabetically on surname/source
Teacher Quotes: A
A Course In Miracles
Once your mind is healed it radiates health, and thereby teaches healing.
A Course In Miracles
Teach only love, for that is what you are.
A Course In Miracles
There is no one from whom a teacher of God cannot learn, so there is no one whom he cannot teach.
A Course In Miracles
To have peace, teach peace to learn it.
Abraham-Hicks
The most important thing that you can teach your children is that Well-Being abounds. And that Well-Being is naturally flowing to them.
Henry Brooks Adams 1838 – 1918
A teacher affects eternity… he can never tell where his influence stops.
Adele 1988
I think being a teacher is one of the most important jobs in the world. If my career stopped, it’s what I’d do.
Eric Allen
Everyone is my teacher. Some I seek. Some I subconsciously attract. Often I learn simply by observing others. Some may be completely unaware that I’m learning from them, yet I bow in deep gratitude.
St Thomas Aquinas 1225 – 1274
We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; and God has provided for this, by appointing His Angels to be our teachers and guides.
Aristotle 384BC – 322BC
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.
Those that know.. Do. Those that understand.. Teach.
David Attenborough 1926
The great heroes and heroines of our society are of course the teachers, and in particular the teachers of kids in their first years. Once a child has been shown what the natural world is, it will live with them forever.
Teacher Quotes: B
Bible
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
W. E. B. Du Bois 1868 – 1963
Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.
Robert Brault
The average teacher explains complexity. The gifted teacher reveals simplicity.
The trouble with learning to parent on the job is that your child is the teacher.
Lorna Byrne 1953
Angels are my best friends, my companions and my teachers.
Teacher Quotes: C
George Carlin 1937 – 2008
Don’t just teach your children to read. Teach them to question what they read. Teach then to question everything.
Joey & Amy (2014)
Arthur C. Clark 1917 – 2008
The object of teaching a child is to enable the child to get along without the teacher. We need to educate our children for their future, not our past.
Paulo Coelho 1947
A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.
Teacher Quotes: D
Charles M. Dickinson
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
Mark Van Doren 1894 – 1972
The art of teaching is… the art of assisting discovery.
Wayne Dyer 1940 – 2015
Try viewing everyone who comes into your life as a teacher.
Teacher Quotes: E
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 – 1882
The years teach us much the days never knew.
Teacher Quotes: F
Martin Henry Fischer 1879 – 1962
A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions.
Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Robert Frost 1874 – 1963
I am not a teacher… But an Awakener.
Buckminster Fuller 1895 – 1983
The National Science Foundation asked the great ‘breakthrough’ scientists what they felt to be the most dominantly favourable factor in their educational experience. The answer was almost uniformly: Intimate association with a great, inspiring teacher.
Teacher Quotes: G
Lady Gaga 1986
Acceptance, tolerance, bravery, compassion: these are the things my mom taught me.
Galileo 1564 – 1642
You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.
Ever Garrison
A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge and wisdom in the pupils.
Kahlil Gibran 1883 – 1931
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.
Teacher Quotes: H
HA-Tony Neate
What is of importance in channelling is that the person contacts a higher level of creative thought. This enables more advanced teachings and philosophies to be offered to the planet.
Brooke Hampton
As mamas, papas, grandparents, teachers and caregivers we have a responsibility to protect these little Earth warriors. It’s our job to protect and nurture their love, their innocence, their spirits, their imagination, their gifts, their health, and wellbeing, their spirituality, their confidence, their character, their freedom of thought, their instincts, their wildness, and their magic! There is nothing we can do in this lifetime that will compare to the importance of this work. These little ones are our future. Guard them well!
Sidney Hook 1902 – 1989
Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.
Kate Hudson 1979
Your children teach you so much. It’s a real mirror of yourself.
Teacher Quotes: J
Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
In their innocence, very young children know themselves to be light and love. If we allow them, they can teach us to see ourselves the same way.
Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.
Teacher Quotes: K
Ken Keyes 1921 – 1995
Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.
Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
Teach us to delight in simple things.
Akiane Kramarik 1994
We cannot teach a flower how to grow, we can only learn from it.
Kuang-tsu
If you give a man a fish… He will eat once.
If you teach a man to fish… He will eat for the rest of his life.
If you are thinking a year ahead… Sow seed.
If you are thinking ten years ahead… Plant a tree.
If you are thinking one hundred years ahead… Educate the people.
By sowing the seed you will harvest once.
By planting a tree you will harvest tenfold.
By educating the people you will harvest one hundredfold.
Charles Kuralt 1934 – 1997
Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.
When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the centre of the community, where they belong.
Teacher Quotes: L
Dalai Lama 1935
In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.
Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning.
Warwick Castle, UKJohn Lubbock
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent school masters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
Teacher Quotes: M
Karl Menninger 1893 – 1990
What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.
Robert Muller 1923 – 2010
Adults are the first and foremost teachers of love, peace, truth, tolerance, happiness and spirituality to their children. No school on Earth can ever replace them.
The example of parents is the greatest teacher. Parents must stand out as models of happiness to their children.
There is no greater learning process than to teach.
Teacher Quotes: N
Ralph Nader 1934
The best teacher is.. Your last mistake.
Native American – Cheyenne
Our first teacher is our own heart.
Teacher Quotes: P
Helen Peters
Teacher appreciation makes the world of education go around.
Plato 429BC – 347BC
For the object of education is to teach us about beauty.
Plutarch 46 – 120
As soft wax is apt to take the stamp of the seal, so are the minds of young children to receive the instruction imprinted on them.
Teacher Quotes: R
Isidor Isaac Rabi 1898 – 1988
My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: “So, did you learn anything today?” But not my mother. “Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a good question today?”
Amit Ray 1960
There is no teacher equal to mother.
Margaret Riel
Being able to help someone learn something is a talent.
Anthony Robbins 1960
I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.
Ken Robinson 1950
Teaching is a creative profession, not a delivery system. Great teachers mentor, stimulate, provoke, engage.
Andy Rooney 1919 – 2011
Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.
Teacher Quotes: S
Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1900 – 1944
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work. But rather, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Angela Schwindt
While we try to teach our children all about life… Our children teach us what life is all about.
Julie, Kevin & Emma (1983)
Seneca 4BC – 65AD
Even while they teach… Men learn.
Charles W. Shedd 1915 – 2004
Some of the world’s best educators are grandparents.
Swami Sivananda 1887 – 1963
The world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore, nil desperandum, march forward hero.
Steven Spielberg 1946
The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.
Alfred Billings Street 1811 – 1881
Nature is our teacher. She unfolds her treasures to our search, unseals our eyes, illumes our minds, and purifies our hearts; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence.
Quotes About Teachers: T
Talmud
When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.
Alexandra Trentor
The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.
Lao Tzu 600BC
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These are your greatest treasures.
Teacher Quotes: W
Neale Donald Walsch 1943
Teach your children that they need nothing exterior to themselves to be happy – no person, place or thing – and that true happiness is found within.
William Arthur Ward 1921 – 1994
Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.
The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
Paul Wellstone 1944 – 2002
If a teacher does not involve himself, his values, his commitments, in the course of discussion, why should the students?
I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.
The first task of teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.
Stuart Wilde 1946
Watch nature, because it is your greatest teacher. It moves and flows and moves again. There is an incredible beauty out there in the mountains, in the forests, to teach you it’s silence, it’s beauty, it’s humility. Stay aligned to that.
Anthony Douglas Williams
Every parent is a teacher… But not all parents teach.
Life is the best teacher.
Teacher Quotes: Y
Malala Yousafzai 1997
One child, one teacher, one pen and one book.. can change the world.
Quotes About Teachers: Z
Gary Zukav 1942
Remind yourself that you are supported, that you are not going it alone upon this Earth. Dwell in the company of your non-physical teachers and guides.
illustrated by Sandra Reeves
