80 Teacher quotes to recognize their life-changing leadership.

The best teacher quotes to show thanks, celebrate retirement, and inspire those who forge the future.

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From teacher motivation to teacher appreciation quotes, you’ll find the perfect soundbite.

Teacher quotes come in all forms, from Teacher Appreciation Week quotes to motivational quotes that help a teacher push past a rough patch.

Learning, after all, doesn’t “just happen.” We don’t absorb information through osmosis. It’s the teachers of the world who build the future through their talent, dedication, and techniques.

Teachers’ impact lasts a lifetime, so it’s no wonder there are so many inspiring teacher quotes by history’s greats. Choose your favorites and use them in cards, on banners, and everywhere else you can dream up. It’s all easy in Adobe Express — no experience required.

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Table of Contents:

Teacher Appreciation Quotes

Great Teacher Quotes

Teacher Motivational Quotes

Teacher Retirement Quotes

New Teacher Quotes

Teacher appreciation quotes to send lasting thanks.

A good teacher can awaken curiosity and joy in a student, or even pave the way to that student’s true calling. The impression a teacher leaves on you can last a lifetime, and showing thanks in return can leave just as lasting a memory for that teacher.

For occasions like Teacher Appreciation Week, quotes like these put gratitude into memorable sound bites to use in cards, on posters, or even on banners to hang in the classroom. Choose your favorites, and your genuine “thank you” will leave a lasting impression on the teachers who did the same for you.

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Your heart is slightly bigger than the average human heart, but that’s because you’re a teacher.”

Aaron Bacall

Think of the drawing or images that could go with this quote. It could even go in a photo collage of memories from the classroom.

I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.”
Alexander the Great
Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.”

Fred Rogers

This quote explains how much more teachers do than teach, and also pays a teacher the compliment that he or she is a hero in your eyes.

One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.”
Carl Jung
It takes a big heart to help shape little minds.”

Unattributed

It takes a big heart to help shape little minds. -Unattributed

When looking for teacher quotes, short sound bites like this one are perfect for banners, social media, and other places where space is limited.

Being able to help someone learn something is a talent.”
Margaret Riel
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.”

Jacques Barzun

Don’t wait until Teacher Appreciation Week to show your thanks for the teachers who made a difference for you.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
Voltaire
Teachers can make such a profound impact on our lives and should be honored as heroes.”
Rainn Wilson
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

Benjamin Franklin

Even the best teachers are underpaid and under-thanked. Show your favorite teachers some recognition, and they’ll see how their work paid off in a touching way.

It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.”
Michael Morpurgo
I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”

Lily Tomlin

Use this quote in a card and add a personal note. Tell a teacher what ideas or personal epiphanies you had outside of class thanks to topics in class.

My teacher gave me the best gift of all: believing in me.”
Unattributed
If you look behind every exceptional person there is an exceptional teacher.”

Stephen Hawking

Think of the exceptional people you know, and ask some of them about the teachers they remember.

If you can read this, thank a teacher.”

American proverb

A little humor is always appreciated. Pick out the funny teacher quotes to add some extra joy to the day.

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
Cynthia Ozick
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Great teacher quotes for the truly inspirational educators.

Great teachers are eternal students, themselves. Forever learning through each school year, classroom, and student, the best teacher quotes capture what education can look like when delivered by an exceptionally good teacher.

These quotes from history’s thinkers, leaders, and personalities recognize great teachers. They also leave educators with food for thought to continue giving the best education they can.

Teacher Appreciation Week might be a fun time to celebrate teachers, but there are some educators who leave such a mark that our gratitude gushes out without the need for a special occasion. Whether you’re a student who wants to show thanks or a teacher who wants to stay inspired, these great teacher quotes are perfect.

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

Japanese Proverb

A whole school year with one great teacher is paid in a lifetime of influence.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
William Arthur Ward
When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.”

Dalai Lama

Education is about so much more than imparting information.

A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.”
Brad Henry
Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon.”

Ann Liberman

Can you imagine what “special something” each student of just one classroom might have?

What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”
Karl Menninger
The great teacher is not the man who supplies the most facts, but the one in whose presence we become different people.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

Mark Van Doren

Guide students to where they discover, and they learn to learn.

I touch the future. I teach.”

Christa McAuliffe

Teachers might not tell the future, but they certainly shape it.

A teacher's job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.”

D. Martin

That sure explains the sparks when the class gets rowdy.

Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.”
Josef Albers
The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.”
Alexandra K. Trenfor
If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job more important.”
Barbara Colorose
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go.”

Dr. Seuss

What better quote for a poster than this one by Dr. Suess, with all the accompanying imagery?

I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”
Robert Frost
Teach the children so it will not be necessary to teach the adults.”

Abraham Lincoln

Education of the children is for the benefit of the world.

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Teacher motivational quotes for one of the hardest jobs there is.

There are days when teaching is harder than ever. A classroom is filled with rowdy or jaded students. Faces stare blankly, and you doubt whether anything you’ve taught will stick at all. Teachers are perpetually underpaid, and thousands of them spend their own savings to support their classrooms.

Education is a true calling. There’s passion behind it, because little else could make the challenges worthwhile. Still, there are times when even passion falters. How do you rekindle the fire? Where do you turn for help, or for new ideas?

Fortunately, history has left us with a treasure trove of positive teacher quotes. From famous teacher quotes to those that instruct and inspire, these quotes have the power to make a difference. Choose your favorites and use them in inspirational collages, on posters, or in letters to teachers you know need the boost.

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When we strive to become better teachers than we are, everyone in our classroom becomes better too.”

Robert John Meehan

The benefit of one teacher’s continued progress is the benefit of every student that teacher meets.

It is the supreme art of a teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Albert Einstein
Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Choose from famous teacher quotes like this one to go on classroom posters of inspiring figures.

Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.”
Sidney Hook
A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.”
Ever Garrison
Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”

William Butler Yeats

This powerful and memorable metaphor can go on a card, in a personal letter, or on an inspirational poster.

One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world"
Malala Yousafzai
Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”

Confucius

Hang this timeless education quote on a banner, and it can become a personal mantra.

What greater or better gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?”
Marcus T. Cicero
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.”
Khalil Gibran
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”

John C. Dana

Do students see you learning and understand that you’re growing, too?

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”

Edward Everett

Imagine how many critical thinkers will venture into the world with just one teacher shaping the power to challenge and think.

Be a wonderful role model because you will be the window through which many children will see their future.”
Thomas McKinnon
What we learn with pleasure we never forget.

Alfred Mercier

This can be a helpful refrain for educators. Each lesson can be taught, somehow, with pleasure.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of becoming.”
Goethe
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Anne Frank

Even when teaching is hardest, taking action now to be your best can mean improving the world with lifelong dividends.

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Teacher retirement quotes to celebrate a career of shaping lives.

An educator who’s spent years in the classroom leaves a lasting impact on potentially thousands of lives. The ripple effect of that career is extraordinary. Thank you teacher quotes for retirement recognize the magnitude of that impact, and close the teacher’s career on notes of nostalgia and appreciation.

Teacher retirement quotes help educators remember the lasting impact of each academic year and each life they touched. Choose your favorites and imagine them in banners or posters for retirement party décor, cards and letters from former students, and flyers to promote the final party. It’s all easy in Adobe Express — no experience required.

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The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.”

Robert M. Hutchins

The end of every school year leaves you wondering, how much of what you taught will last? The end of a career magnifies that feeling. Your job, however, is done.

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

B.B. King

Even with the passage of time, your lasting impact on students will always be remembered, and forever be reflected in how your former students live.

A good teacher is like a candle — it consumes itself to light the way for others.”
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
It is not what is poured into the student, but what is planted, that counts.”
E.P. Bertin
Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions.”
Unattributed
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

Henry Adams

There is so much influence that departing teachers will never know they left. Still, that doesn’t make their influence any less significant.

The roots of education are bitter but the fruit is sweet.”
Aristotle
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”

GK Chesterton

As one educator retires, the baton is handed off to another generation of teachers, too. The soul of education lives on.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
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.”

Andy Rooney

Think of how many students will remember a retiring teacher who spent years or decades of time in the classroom.

We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
Ronald Reagan
Some people change the world. And some people change the people who change the world, and that’s you.”

Kij Johnson

Retiring teachers can step back and take credit for many of the changes in the world around them.

Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.”

Chinese Proverb

This famous proverb is perfect for a letter or card from grown students who attend a teacher’s retirement celebration.

Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.”
Scott Hayden
Educators are the only people who lose sleep over other people's kids.”

Nicholas A. Ferroni

For retiring teachers, now it’s your turn to rest. The benefits of your career are being harvested daily in your immediate world.

Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.”
Judy Blume
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New teacher quotes to start off with energy and excitement.

New teachers might be fresh from their own schooling, but they continue to learn from every class, student, and school year.

These new teacher quotes help you remember why you started teaching in the first place. They help you ride out the moments of nervousness, struggle, and overwhelm. Everything you ever studied, practiced, heard, or imagined is about to pan out in real-life experience, and these cute teacher quotes help you focus on what it’s all about.

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The secret in education lies in respecting the student.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Children learn best when they like their teacher and they think their teacher likes them.”

Gordon Neufeld

They’ll know it when you show it.

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
Malcolm X
Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”

Lady Bird Johnson

This is a powerful quote for yourself or for other peers in education. It could go on a poster in the teacher’s lounge as a reminder.

Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.”

Bob Talbert

This is a cute play on words among famous math teacher quotes.

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
John Dewey
Teaching is not just a job. It is a human service, and it must be thought of as a mission.”

Dr. Ralph Tyler

There are some days when only that sense of purpose will pull you through.

Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world.”
Maria Montessori
Students don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care.”
John C. Maxwell
To teach is to learn twice.”

Joseph Joubert

By teaching, a teacher keeps learning; and by learning, a teacher continually becomes a better teacher.

Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.”

Anatole France

Encouragement comes in many different forms, from peer support to good grades and direct encouragement from a teacher.

In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
Phil Collins , Son of a Man
The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”
Sydney J. Harris
We never know which lives we influence, or when or why.”

Stephen King

Even when you’re not sure that your core curriculum is sticking, maybe something unexpected is.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.”
Joyce Meyer
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

Pablo Picasso

When other resources falter, your gift of teaching is never a finite resource, and you can continue giving.

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Tips to put teacher quotes to good use.

Teacher quotes aren’t just for Teacher Appreciation Week, nor are they only for students or for teachers. The best teacher quotes are relatable and timely, meaning you can use them in any educational environment.

For example, you can consider using teacher quotes in:

You can leave teacher quotes on shared bulletin boards, too, and you might see them in the school’s monthly newsletter. Whenever and wherever you can give thanks to a teacher, these teacher quotes send the perfect message.

Exercise: the theme-maker.

As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

If you need the perfect teacher quote, ask yourself: how do you want to make that teacher feel?

If you’re an educator, yourself, and looking for inspiration, the question is roughly the same: how do you want to feel?

This curated list of teacher quotes strikes every chord. Once you put your target emotion into words, you can pick the best quote for your project.

It’s not just about how you share your teacher quotes, either. It’s also about which teachers you share them with. Even a teacher you haven’t talked to in a decade is fair game. Teachers don’t get enough thanks as it is, and these teacher quotes can change that.

Adobe Express can help.

Adobe Express has templates and customization tools to put your favorite teacher quotes to work. If you want to use teacher quotes in cards, letters, posters, banners, photo collages, flyers, or other creative projects, Adobe Express makes it as simple as picking a template and personalizing it, or making your own idea with easy-to-use tools. Whatever message you want to transmit, Adobe Express brings it to life, no experience required.

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