75 inspiring teacher quotes to show your appreciation all year long

Teachers are truly extraordinary. Because of their dedication and hard work, we learn the skills necessary to achieve success in life.

From teaching basic skills like reading and writing to imparting wisdom and encouragement, they build the foundation for the future.

In fact, without teachers, you wouldn't be reading this right now.

With that in mind, we've gathered a collection of teacher quotes to celebrate all that educators do to enrich our lives.

In the teacher quote compilation below, you'll find meaningful musings like, “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes," a quote by Guy Kawasaki, along with inspirational messages like Malala Yousafzai's poignant quote, “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”

If you're hoping to keep things on the lighter side, there are also funny quotes like, “A teacher is a person who never says anything once,” by Howard Nemerov.

Whatever you're looking for to express your appreciation in honor of a special teacher, you're sure to find it in the list below.

Use one of these teacher quotes as an Instagram caption or jot it down in a card. Either way, these thoughtful messages will bring a smile to any educator's face this school year.

Teacher appreciation quotes

• “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” — Brad Henry
• “When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.” — Dalai Lama
• “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” — Oscar Wilde
• “Being able to help someone learn something is a talent.” — Margaret Riel
• “Those who know do. Those who understand, teach.” — Aristotle

• “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” — Carl Buehner
• “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.” — Maya Angelou
• “For the mind does not require filling like a bottle, but rather, like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth.” — Plutarch
• “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
• “Intelligence plus character ― that is the goal of true education.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

• “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.” — Bob Talbert
• “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” — Phil Collins, “Son of Man”
• “The fact that you worry about being a good teacher, means that you already are one.” — Jodi Picoult
• “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” — Henry Adams
• “There is no recipe to be a great teacher, that's what is unique about them.” — Robert Sternberg

• “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” — Mark Van Doren
• “It is not what is poured into the student but what is planted that counts.” — E.P. Bertin
• “If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney
• “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” — Benjamin Franklin
• “Being a teacher is not what I do, it's who I am.” — Jill Biden
• “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

• “The world is changed by your example not by your opinion.” — Paulo Coelho
• “Learning never exhausts the mind,” — Leonardo da Vinci
• “Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.” — William James
• “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” — B.B. King
• “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

• “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” — Lily Tomlin
• “You really have to be a morning person if you want to be a teacher.” — Alanna Ubach
• “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” — Albert Einstein
• “I touch the future. I teach.” — Christa McAuliffe
• “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

• “Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.” — Joyce Meyer
• “What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” — Joseph Addison
• “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
• “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
• “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes.” — Guy Kawasaki

• “I saw as a teacher how if you take that spark of learning that those children have and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.” — Paul Wellstone
• “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” — Virginia Woolf
• “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” — Margaret Mead
• “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” — G.K. Chesterton
• “The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed.” — Anne Sullivan

• “Teach love, generosity, good manners and some of that will drift from the classroom to the home and who knows, the children will be educating the parents.” — Roger Moore
• “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” — Colleen Wilcox
• “No one is perfect. That’s why pencils have erasers.” — Wolfgang Riebe, “100 Quotes to Make You Think”
• “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.” — Vernon Law
• “Encourage and support your kids because children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” — Lady Bird Johnson
• “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

Inspirational teacher quotes

• “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” — William Arthur Ward
• “The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.” –Alexandra K. Trenfor
•  “If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.” — Marian Wright Edelman
• “…good teachers are priceless. They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don’t know it.” — Nicholas Sparks, “Dear John”
• "Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre." — Gail Godwin

• “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” — Robin Williams, “Dead Poets Society”
• “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.” — Karl A. Menninger
• “When you study great teachers … you will learn much more from their caring and hard work than from their style.” — William Glasser
• “Teaching is a calling too. And I’ve always thought that teachers in their way are holy — angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.” — Jeannette Walls, “Half Broke Horses”
• “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X

• “The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.'” — Maria Montessori
• “What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than that of teaching?” — Harriet Martineau
• “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” — Socrates
• “Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.” — James Dewar

• “I continue to believe that if children are given the necessary tools to succeed, they will succeed beyond their wildest dreams!” — David Vitter
• “Our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see.” — Elijah Cummings
• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
• “Information may be free, an education is priceless.” — Marie Forleo
• “Wherever you find something extraordinary, you’ll find the fingerprints of a great teacher.” — Arne Duncan
• "Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together." — Scott Hayden

Funny teacher quotes

• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." — Albert Einstein
• "Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others." — Brandon Mull, "Fablehaven"
• "If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you." — Muhammad Ali
• "If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything." — William Lyon Phelps

• "Even if you're on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there." — Will Rogers
• "A teacher's job is to take a bunch of lives wires and see that they are well-grounded." — Darwin D. Martin
• “A teacher is a person who never says anything once.” — Howard Nemerov