Every day, teachers inspire their students to work hard, overcome obstacles, and push themselves to achieve incredible things. Today, we’d like to place teachers on the receiving end of the inspiration – so we present to you our top twelve favorite spirit-lifting quotes for teachers!
1. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
– William Butler Yeats
2. “I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.”
– John Steinbeck
3. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
– William Ward
4. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”
– Confucius
5. “The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer.”
– Alice Wellington Rollins
6. “One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”
– Carl Jung
7. “The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.”
– Dan Rather
8. “Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.”
– Henry Brooks Adams
9. “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”
– Lily Tomlin
10. “The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.”
– Joseph Campbell
11. “Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.”
– Robert M. Hutchins
12. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.”
– Goethe
Don’t forget to check out some of our other blogs on The Teacher’s Voice is a Powerful Instrument and Top Ten Reasons to Become a Substitute Teacher.