90 Role Model Quotes on the Influence of Heroes in Our Lives

Heroes don’t necessarily have to wear capes while protecting the entire universe with their superpowers as these 50 Role Model quotes prove. 

Are you an influencer or admirer?

Whether you’re the hero who influences the lives of your followers or you’re the one being influenced by your hero, it’s important to evaluate the impact of such influence in your life and others’. 

These Role Model quotes will open your eyes to the significance of emulating the role models who create a positive impact in your life and being the role model who molds people to be better versions of themselves, not lost or misguided.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Check out more inspirational quotes on our motivational quotes category page.

Role model quotes to inspire you on your journey

1. “It’s good to have female or minority role models. But the important thing is to have mentors who care about you, and they come in all colors.” – Condoleezza Rice

2. “Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating.” – John Wooden

3. “A father has to be a provider, a teacher, a role model, but most importantly, a distant authority figure who can never be pleased. Otherwise, how will children ever understand the concept of God?” – Stephen Colbert

4. “A role model should be like the light at the end of a tunnel, guiding you when you are lost.” – Cristina Imre

5. “Always do your best in whatever you do. Set goals and seek challenges. Become a role model for those coming behind you. And always have God in your heart.” – Charles F. Bolden

6. “Being a role model is equal parts being who you actually are and what people hope you will be.”- Meryl Streep

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7. “I wrote my first 30 books as a teacher. I would read to my classes, and they’d give me feedback. I was trying to role model.” – Eric Walters

8. “Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate.” – Unknown

9. “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” – James Baldwin

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10. “Each person must live their life as a role model for others.” – Rosa Parks

Role model quotes to motivate you to achieve your best

11. “Find someone who has a life that you want and figure out how they got it. Read books, pick your role models wisely. Find out what they did and do it.” – Lana Del Rey

12. “Here’s what I always say: If they can see it, they can be it.” – Geena Davis

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13. “I don’t want to be a supermodel. I want to be a role model.” – Queen Latifah

14. “I think a role model is a mentor – someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.” – Denzel Washington

15. “I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world.” – Meryl Streep 

16. “Instruction is good for a child but example is worth more.”- Alexandre Dumas

17. “Keep those that influence you for the better close and never give them a reason to keep you far away.”- Shannon L. Alder 

18. “Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.” – Rosabeth Moss Kantor

19. “Make yourself your role model, because people who do not have qualities depend on the qualities of others to shape their own qualities.” – Michael Bassey Johnson

20. “My author role model is Kurata Misako. I want to be rich enough to drive from room to room in my home but also down to earth enough to let squirrels live in my hair.”- Christy Leigh Stewart 

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Role model quotes to elevate your perspective

21. “People need role models. Are you up to the job?” – Frank Sonnenberg

22. “Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes.”- Liza Wiemer 

23. “Role models are only of limited use. For no one is as important, potentially powerful and as key in your life and world as you.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru

24. “Role models set goals for you and try to make you as good as they are. Role models are important.” – Kasey Zacharias

25. “The biggest problem with mentorship is that in almost all cases the mentor either cannot make the mentee better than them, or does not want that to ever happen.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

26. “The only people you have to look out for in life are the people that don’t care about anything or anyone. These are the people that end up teaching your children.” – Shannon L. Alder

27. “The role that people play in your life can determine how far you can go.” –  Israelmore Ayivor

28. “We all need role models in different seasons, people we look to who bring encouragement for the journey.” – Sue Detweiler

29. “You are the combination of the five people you look up to.” – Mike Yanek

30. “As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” – Ernest Hemingway

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Role model quotes to inspire and teach

31. “Don’t worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.” –  Robert Fulghum

32. “Everyone in society should be a role model, not only for their own self-respect, but for respect from others.” – Barry Bonds

33. “Family is the first school for young children, and parents are powerful models.” –  Alice Sterling Honig

34. “I believe in recovery, and I believe that as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it.” – Ann Richards

35. “I know that being seen as a role model means taking responsibility for all my actions. I am human, and of course, sometimes I make mistakes. But I promise that when I fall, I get back up.” – Jennifer Lopez  

36. “If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person’s life in a positive light, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what it’s all about.” – Tiger Woods

37. “I’m not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.” – Charles Barkley

38. “I’m not paid to be a role model. Parents should be role models.” – Charles Barkley

39. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain

40. “One of the most important things we adults can do for young children is to model the kind of person we would like them to be.” – Carol B. Hillman

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Role model quotes to inspire success

41. “Parents have a big responsibility because they are the primary example of empathy and must practice being empathic themselves.” – Iben Dissing Sandahl

42. “People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.” – Oliver Goldsmith

43. “Role modeling is the most basic responsibility of parents. Parents are handing life’s scripts to their children, scripts that in all likelihood will be acted out for the rest of the children’s lives.” – Stephen R. Covey

44. “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others. It is the only means.” – Albert Einstein

45. “The best way to teach children restraint and generosity is to be a model of those qualities yourself.” – Lawrence Balter

46. “The most important single influence in the life of a person is another person … who is worthy of emulation.” – Paul D. Shafer

47. “The whole concept of role models is frightful. You gotta make your own role.” – William S. Burroughs 

48. “What you teach your own children is what you really believe in.” – Cathy Warner Weatherford

49. “Why are the parents doing such a poor job of bringing up their children? Probably because they didn’t have very effective role models themselves when they were growing up. It could go back generations” – Karl Wiggins

50. “You’ve got to be careful whom you pattern yourself after because you’re likely to become just like them.” – Rich Mayo

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More role model quotes and sayings

51. If your kid needs a role model and you ain’t it, you’re both fucked.” – George Carlin

52. “Polar north can’t get away from a magnet; the magnet finds it, no matter what.” – Jodi Picoult

53. “When you have lived your individual life in your own adventurous way and then look back upon its course, you will find that you have lived a model human life, after all.” – Joseph Campbell

54. “In truth, it’s all an act, outside of truth the act is real.” – Jordan G Truth

55. “You don’t stop dreaming and going after what you want when you have kids, you go harder. It is a lot easier for your kids to listen to you when your actions precede your words. When they see you moving forward and overcoming the various obstacles that come your way.” – Sope Agbelusi

56. “Let’s be very clear: Strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.” – Michelle Obama

57. “I looked up to my parents because they were very successful in what they wanted to do. I was lucky; I didn’t have to look far for role models.” – Derek Jeter

58. “Sports is a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and achieving against great odds. Athletes, in times of difficulty, can be important role models.” – Bill Bradley

59. “My parents are my role models. All they’ve done for me, they’re just major people in my life. They’ve stood by me and got me where I am today.” – Keke Palmer

60. “I was used to being the only woman in everything… I didn’t even think about it. Men were my role models – there’s nothing wrong with that.” – Frances Arnold

Role model quotes that will make you think

61. “People focus on role models; it is more effective to find antimodels – people you don’t want to resemble when you grow up.” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

62. “My peers are my role models, and my role models are my peers. Which is extraordinary.” ― David Levithan

63. “I don’t think of myself as a role model. I do try to live in a compassionate, considerate and positive way. The only advice I can offer is to find what you love to do, find the joy in it, and express yourself through your passion.” ― Barry Williams

64. “I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” ― Gilda Radner

65. Everybody should be able to enjoy their life, because you only live once. So I just want to get it all out there and be the best role model that I can be, if people want to put me in that kind of predicament. I mean, I didn’t ask to be a role model, because I’m not perfect.” ― ASAP Rocky

66. “No human being should be a role model. We all have flaws.” ― Jim Brown

67. “I would like to be called an inspiration to people, not a role model – because I make mistakes like everybody else. When I’m offstage, I’m just like everybody else.” ― Britney Spears

68. “I don’t think of myself as a role model for others, but I like to live my life by my own integrity. So, in that sense, I might be a positive influence. I do believe you should get over your insecurities and just try to be the best you can.” ― Lily Cole

69. “I think it’s high time that we had a woman president. But I don’t want to elect someone just because she’s a woman; I want the best candidate to be elected. I think that any woman who is elected to the highest office in the land would clearly have positive role model effects for other young women.” ― Linda McMahon

70. “My biggest thing about being a role model is whatever I’m preaching, I’m practicing. If I’m telling people I’m boxing and then I’m eating a burger tonight, it’s because I am. I’m not cheating and eating a salad and then being like, ‘Yeah! Burgers are cool!'” ― Gigi Hadid

Role Model Quotes to Aspire to be Great

71. “I want to get to a point in my career where I can be a good role model.” ― Chad Michael Murray

72. “I try to be myself and, of course, be a good role model. I don’t really find it hard, but you think about what you do and that other people look up to you.” ― Caroline Wozniacki

73. “I don’t apply [being a role model] to the choices I make. I feel like a role model is not necessarily someone you want to imitate, just someone you admire.” ― Kristen Stewart

74. “I’d have to say, what inspires me is making sure my siblings have a good role model to look up to.” ― Melanie Iglesias

75. “Being a working mommy is something I’ve always wanted to be. My mother is my biggest role model and she showed me how to do it right.” ― Kerri Walsh

76. “I don’t think you have to be perfect to be a role model.” ― Rob Lowe

77. “I want to be the best role model I can be for my family.” ― Kerri Walsh

78. “People need role models. They need to see examples of people in peoples’ lives.” ― Coretta Scott King

79. “I feel blessed because not only my character is, but I, myself, can be a role model for people to show that is okay to be your own unique self.” ― Atticus Shaffer

80. “We have to have positive male role models.” ― Donald Miller

81. If people want me to be their role-model, it would be nice.” — Cher Lloyd

82. I think I am a good role model, and a lot of mothers come up to me and they’re really happy, and I think if any girl follows their dreams then anything can happen to them.” — Paris Hilton

83. “It feels amazing to be a role model for people with and without disabilities.” — Lauren Potter

84. “In terms of being a role model, I didn’t start out to be one. I don’t go to work every day with that in mind. But, I do get a lot of fan mail from young girls.” — Victoria Pratt

85. “I never thought I’d be a role model at this age. I just have to be myself.” — Mo’ne Davis

86. “Boxers are role models for a lot of young people. The sporting aspects should always be more important than business aspects.” — Alexander Povetkin

87. “And to this day, my Mom is my role model.” — Paul Ryan

88. “I think the best thing, or the greatest thing my girls have going for them, is having their mother as a role model.” — Tim McGraw

89. “Be a shining role model of the best qualities humane eating embodies: caring, compassion, and empathy.” — Michael Greger

90. “My family has been my biggest inspiration – they are true role models in my life and career and they always will be.” — Hrithik Roshan

What did you learn from these role model quotes?

Comic characters we’ve looked up to growing up like Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and Thor have given us the stereotypical image of what a hero should look like but if you read these Role Model quotes, it’s clear that heroes come in different shapes and sizes.

There are many heroes, role models, and mentors in our world.

They can be our parents, relatives, friends, teachers, colleagues, and even strangers.  

But one thing’s for sure.

They all shape our lives.

If you’re going to be influenced by anyone you admire and believe in, you need to make sure that person will make you a better, more responsible, and successful human being.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these role model quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other thoughtful quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.