100 Teacher Quotes Every Teacher Will Relate To

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.

Here are 100 of the best teacher quotes I could find. The goal? To inspire you to learn more, share more, and connect more (whether you’re a teacher, parent, or student). You’ll discover quotes by Einstein, Dalai Lama, Nietzsche, and more. Enjoy!

The teacher is the lesson. Naval Ravikant

Coaching, at it’s best, is invisible. James Pierce

The job of an educator is to teach students to see vitality in themselves. Joseph Campbell

One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world. Malala Yousafzai

A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams

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Your educators can only be your liberators. Friedrich Nietzsche

The best teachers remove more from your mind than they ever put in it. Ed Latimore (edlatimore.com)

Question your teachers. If they don’t welcome it, find other teachers. Johnny Uzan

Give too much and they give up. Give too little and they don’t care. Find balance. Maxime Lagacé

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

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Where would any of us be without teachers? Fred Rogers

The best teacher in the world is someone who loves what he or she does, and just loves it in front of you. Fred Rogers

The real teacher is the student’s curiosity. Thibaut (@kpaxs)

A good teacher: someone who retains a clear, compassionate sense of what it was like not to know. Alain de Botton

I am not a teacher, but an awakener. Robert Frost

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The Best Teacher Quotes

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The best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self-reflective. Randy Pausch

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. William Arthur Ward

Your teaching ability is constrained by your writing ability. If you can’t write it down, it will be nearly impossible to teach it to others. James Clear

Exceptional teachers not only understand their topic, but also know why someone might misunderstand it. James Clear
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A teacher that does not want to learn can hardly teach. @AmuseChimp

A good teacher sees potential in a child’s hidden strengths. A great teacher sees the potential in a child’s perceived weaknesses. Scott Barry Kaufman

Teach principles not formulas. Richard Feynman

The best teachers are students too. Maxime Lagacé

The best way to learn is to do; the worst way to teach is to talk. Paul Halmos

You don’t have to solve problems for others. You can let them be uncomfortable. Shane Parrish

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A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron. Horace Mann

The best teacher is the one who’s having fun. Maxime Lagacé

As a teacher I know the minute I stop learning, I can no longer teach. The minute I think I know it all, I’m done. Iyanla Vanzant

Charlatans want you to be impressed. Real thinkers want you to understand. Angela Jiang

Good teachers introduce new thoughts. Great teachers introduce new ways of thinking. Good teachers care about their subjects. Great teachers care about their students. Good teachers teach us what they know. Great teachers teach us how to learn. Adam Grant

The best advice doesn’t specify what to do. It highlights blind spots in our thinking and helps us clarify our priorities. Adam Grant

Those who can’t do shouldn’t teach. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you want to teach someone a real skill, teach him how to fail. He will never learn it in school. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see. Alexandra K. Trenfor

A good teacher offers practice, a bad one offers theories. Anthony de Mello

The world is full of teachers but devoid of students. Naval Ravikant

The first thing that any education ought to give a man is character and the second thing is education. George Horace Lorimer

Good teachers believe in their own skills. Great teachers believe in their students. Maxime Lagacé

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. John Cotton Dana

Related: 25 Simple Ways to Say Thank You to Teachers (thoughtco.com)

Part 2. Teacher Quotes That Are…

The Most Famous Teacher Quotes

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Searching for a famous teacher quote or author? Check out those by Nietzsche, Victor Hugo, Maya Angelou, Dalai Lama, etc.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

I don’t know any other way to lead but by example. John Wooden

It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach. John Locke

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed. Maria Montessori

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. C.S. Lewis

Teach your students to doubt, to think, to communicate, to question, to make mistakes, to learn from their mistakes, and most importantly, have fun in their learning. Richard Feynman

One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil. Friedrich Nietzsche

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. Anatole France

The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to convey it to another. Richard Feynman

Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness. Victor Hugo (Les Misérables)

Maybe the hardest part is if you teach, you have to live your teaching. Maya Angelou

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school. Bill Gates

Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people. Fred Rogers
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Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

To educate educators! But the first ones must educate themselves! And for these I write. Friedrich Nietzsche

If you really want to create something that lasts generations, you have to help inspire the next generation. Kobe Bryant

The enemy is a very good teacher. 14th Dalai Lama

I’ll tell you something about us teachers. We see the worth of every human. We love our work. We never give up. Elizabeth Warren

Teachers, librarians and nurses will all get the best seats in heaven. Anne Lamott

Dear Teachers, you are our most important leaders. Brené Brown

Inspirational Teacher Quotes

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The best teachers are the ones that change their minds. Terry Heick

Never underestimate what a single word of encouragement can do to change the trajectory of someone’s life. Ian Cassel

A teacher’s real job isn’t to teach the subject; it’s to raise the curiosity of students to learn the subject. Kunal (@CrazyPolymath)

It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom. Michael Morpurgo

Don’t just teach your students to read. Teach them to question what they read, what they study. Teach them to doubt. Teach them to think. Teach them to make mistakes and learn from them. Teach them how to understand something. Teach them how to teach others. Richard Feynman

Students should be made to think like scientists, be open-minded, curious, and especially, to doubt. Richard Feynman

Students don’t need a perfect teacher. Students need a happy teacher, who’s gonna make them excited to come to school and grow a love for learning. Richard Feynman

There’s a world of difference between insisting on someone’s doing something and establishing an atmosphere in which that person can grow into wanting to do it. Fred Rogers

A good teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. Thomas Carruthers

Respect the child. Treat him as a person. The best thing a person can feel is to be accepted as he is, not as he will be when he grows up, but as he is now, right this very minute. Fred Rogers

Please, think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their custody, their day care, their health, their education – please listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them. Fred Rogers

The average teacher provides ready-made knowledge. A good teacher introduces new ideas. A great one introduces new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Ana Lorena Fabrega (Source)

Learning occurs where confusion meets interest. Unknown

Fools impose. The wise inspire. Maxime Lagacé

Entertain or educate. If you can do both, you’ll be unstoppable. Maxime Lagacé

All the world is my school and all humanity is my teacher. George Whitman

People are informed when they learn from you but empowered when they learn with you. Teach as an instructor and people believe in you. Teach as a student and they believe in themselves. Adam Grant

People who are naturally talented are often terrible teachers. The best teachers are often those who were not naturally talented and had to work extra hard to learn. Preethi Kasireddy

The best teacher is self-reflection. Shane Parrish

Teaching is the profession on which all other professions depend. Linda Darling-Hammond

The professor of the future will be equal parts educator and entertainer. Matthew Kobach

What makes a good coach? Complete dedication. George Halas

It’s not what you tell your players that counts. It’s what they hear. Red Auerbach

Teach like you have something to learn. Sahil Lavingia

Related: Students Create a Surprise for Their Favorite Teacher (4-minute YouTube video)

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Wise Teacher Sayings

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The greatest teachers are the ones without an agenda. James Pierce

Smart teachers teach humility. Maxime Lagacé

Watch out for people who want to teach but not be taught. Julian Shapiro

A mentor is not someone who walks ahead of us to show us how they did it. A mentor walks alongside us to show us what we can do. Simon Sinek

A good teacher will arm you with the tools to dispute their conclusions. The Stoic Emperor (Source)

Your environment is your most underrated yet effective mentor. Angela Jiang

If coaching is not individualized, it’s just dogma. Brian Norgard

Genuine learning is impossible without curiosity. Naval Ravikant

Teaching is successful only as it causes people to think for themselves. What the teacher thinks matters little; what he makes the child think matters much. Alice Moore Hubbard

Teach children how to think, not what to think. Thibaut

An intelligent person is interested in giving the right answers. A wise person is interested in asking the right questions. Thibaut

“Teachers” indoctrinating students don’t know what teaching is. Naval Ravikant

Teaching is more a way for the teacher to learn than for the student to learn. Naval Ravikant

Teachers won’t make you clever. Personal trainers won’t make you fit. Others won’t make you happy. Books won’t make you rich. No one is going to do it for you. The responsibility is yours. Shane Parrish

A good teacher introduces new ideas. A great one introduces new ways of thinking. Ana Lorena Fabrega

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are. Noam Chomsky

If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don’t attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity…or get another job. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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

A good teacher is simply a good learner who loves to share. Mustafa Khundmiri (Source)

Upon feeling a compulsion to teach, one author picks up his pen. The other, puts it down. Kapil Gupta

To teach is to learn twice. Joseph Joubert

Students can’t learn the way you teach? Teach them the way they learn. Richard Feynman

Teacher and student have to meet at curiosity or its not real. @AmuseChimp

Students in classes with traditional lecturing were 1.5x more likely to fail than those with active learning. Lectures might be the worst way to learn. Every class should invite students to teach one another and apply their knowledge in projects. Adam Grant

How smart people are has little bearing on how informed they are. Without curiosity, intelligence breeds ignorance. Your greatest teachers aren’t the ones who know the most. They’re the ones who want to know the most. Adam Grant

When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see. Baltasar Gracián

Schools obsess over intellectual training, but emotional mastery is the most crucial of all. Johnny Uzan

Teachers with better questions create students with better outcomes. Maxime Lagacé

Related: 5 habits of great teachers (online.lsus.edu)

Conclusion

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As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have – something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression. Fred Rogers

100 Teacher Quotes Every Teacher Will Relate To – Wisdom Quotes (2024)

The Best Teacher Quotes

Part 2. Teacher Quotes That Are…

The Most Famous Teacher Quotes

Inspirational Teacher Quotes

Wise Teacher Sayings

Conclusion

Further Readings

Table Of Contents

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