80 Teaching Quotes all Educators Need to Hear

Just like parents, teachers are one of the most important people in our lives.

They use their experience to impart knowledge on us and help us grow.

A teacher is the most significant factor in determining the quality of education a child receives.

And it is the great teachers that can change your life.

They can guide you and teach you the qualities that make one successful, and their lessons will last a lifetime.

A great teacher is someone who has the patience and understanding to teach you everything, any number of times.

They have clear goals and objectives and set high standards for their students.

Additionally, effective teachers engage their students and get them to look at issues from various perspectives.

A teacher is always within you.

Anyone can be a teacher to those around them.

There’s nothing more satisfying than influencing and changing lives by sharing your knowledge and experience.

Here are some inspirational teaching quotes to encourage you to be a great teacher by sharing and setting an example for others to follow.

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

Look through our complete collection of inspirational quotes here.

Teaching quotes all educators need to hear

1. “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” ― Albert Einstein

You will also enjoy our article on quotes about education.

2. “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” ― Aristotle

3. A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. – Brad Henry

You will also enjoy our article on Teacher’s Day quotes.

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

5. Any good teacher knows how important it is to connect with students and understand our culture. – Adora Svitak

6. Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges. – Joyce Meyer

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

8. “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” ― Phil Collins

9. “The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.” ― Elbert Hubbard

10. A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions. – Martin H. Fischer

11. So what does a good teacher do? Create tension – but just the right amount. – Donald Norman

Inspirational teaching quotes

12. Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops. – Henry Brooks Adams

13. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. – William A. Ward

14. If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow. – John Dewey

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

If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of Joseph Campbell quotes to inspire long term thinking.

16. “You can’t really teach a kid anything: you can only show him the way and motivate him to learn it himself.” ― Dave Cullen

17. Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring. ― Sidney J. Harris

18. “I am not a teacher, but an awakener.” — Robert Frost

19. “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” — Japanese proverb

20. “The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.” — John Lubbock

21. “To teach is to learn twice over.” — Joseph Joubert

22. “What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.” – George Bernard Shaw

23. Teaching is an instinctual art, mindful of potential, craving of realizations, a pausing, seamless process. ― A. Bartlett Giamatti

24. Teachers, who educate children, deserve more honor than parents, who merely gave them birth; for the latter provided mere life, while the former ensured a good life. ― Aristotle

25. In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ― Jacques Barzun

26. “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” – Mark Van Doren

27. “A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.” – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

28. “The teachers who get “burned out” are not the ones who are constantly learning, which can be exhilarating, but those who feel they must stay in control and ahead of the students at all times.” – Frank Martin

29. Teaching is the only major occupation…for which we have not developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the naturals, the ones who somehow know how to teach.― Peter Drucker

30. “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” – Lily Tomlin

Teaching quotes to appreciate our educators

31. “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.” – Karl Menninger

32. “When you study great teachers… you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” ― William Glasser

33. “Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.” ― Paulo Coelho

34. “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of the mind for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” ― Anatole France
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of curiosity quotes that will inspire you to learn more about the world around you.

35. “But the purpose of a story is to teach and to please at once, and what it teaches is how to recognize the snares of the world.” ― Umberto Eco

36. “Of all the hard jobs around, one of the hardest is being a good teacher” – Maggie Gallagher

37. “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre” – Gail Godwin

38. “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think” – Socrates

39. “Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions” – Unknown

40. “Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.”~Haim G. Ginott

Powerful teaching quotes

41. I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.” – Alexander the Great

42. “Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.” ― Scott Hayden

43. “One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.” ― Alan Bennett

44. “For the advice in a joke is sometimes more useful than the most serious teaching.” ― Baltasar Gracián

45. “A teacher is one who helps others and influences lives forever.” – Catherine Pulsifer

46. “Ask yourself: ‘Do I feel the need to laminate?’ Then teaching is for you.” ― Gordon Korman

47. “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 

48. “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

49. “I taught you everything you know. But I didn’t teach you everything I know.” ― Orson Scott Card

50. “Teaching is a little like weaving a piece of fabric. A weaver must have certain equipment and materials in order to create the desired design and color.” – Delia Halverson

More teaching quotes and sayings

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

52. “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston S. Churchill

53. “The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence.” – Amos Bronson Alcott

54. “The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator not content provider.” – Lev S. Vygotsky

55. “Teach nothing, for you still have everything to learn.” – Fernando Pessoa

56. “Education is our only political safety. Outside of this ark, all is deluge.” – Horace Mann

57. Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.” – Paulo Freire

58. “One can learn anything, anything at all, I thought, if provided by a gifted and passionate teacher.” – Pat Conroy

59. “A good teacher does something more than teaching; he makes you start learning.” – Raheel Faroog

60. “A good teacher is one, that never stops listening; a good listener is one, that never stops teaching.” – Anthony Liccione

Inspirational Quotes for Teachers

61. “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” – Malcolm Forbes

62. “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” – Will Durant

63. “Everything is a learning process: any time you fall over, it’s just teaching you to stand up the next time.” – Joel Edgerton

64. “Teaching is the royal road to learning.” – Jessamyn West

65. “Teaching is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. It permeates your whole life.” – Jill Biden

66. “Effective teaching may be the hardest job there is.” – William Glasser

67. I think the teaching profession contributes more to our society than any other single profession.” – John Wooden

68. “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” – Oscar Wilde

69. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

70. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Teaching Quotes For Teachers And Learners

71. “Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.” ― Albert Einstein
72. “Don’t forget your teachers who showed you kindness by teaching you.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita
73. “To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.” ― Henri Frederic Amiel
74. “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” ― Josef Albers
75. “A lot of education is like teaching marching; I try to make it more like dancing.” ― Peter Schjeldahl
76. “Teaching yoga itself is great karma yoga, because it reconnects people to the source.” ― Amit Ray
77. “You teach best what you most need to learn.” ― Richard Bach
78. “Teach a child how to think, not what to think.” ― Sidney Sugarman
79. “Teaching, the most noble profession, should be rewarded based on merit alone, not seniority.” ― Mark Kostabi
80. “Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change.” ― William Arthur Ward

Which are your favorite teaching quotes?

Having quality teachers is one of the most important factors in determining your success in life.

They can guide you and make things easier by teaching you strong values that make one successful.

A teacher can be anyone.

It could be your parents, school teachers, professors, friends, and anyone else who’s shared, taught you and had a positive impact on your life.

Hopefully, these quotes have inspired you to be a great teacher by helping others and influencing lives positively.

Did you enjoy these teaching quotes?

Which of the quotes was your favorite?

Tell us in the comment section below.

We would love to hear all about it.