The goal of education

1. “The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” —Jean Piaget
2. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” —John Dewey
3. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. –Albert Einstein
4. “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” ― S. Lewis
5. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” ― B. Yeats

The keys to success

6. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It is quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” —Thomas J. Watson.
7. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein
8. “When we build on our strengths and daily successes—instead of focusing on failures—we simply learn more.”—Tom Rath
9. “Don’t stop until you’re proud of yourself”. ― Rachel Wolchin
10. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt
11. “Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.”—Marilyn Vos Savant
12. “My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them. “—Richard Branson
13. “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” —S. Eliot.
14. “Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. “—Mark Twain.
15. “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now. “—Alan Lakein
16. “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all the brains that I can borrow. “ — Woodrow Wilson
17. “It’s easy to say “no!” when you have a bigger “yes!” burning inside.” —Stephen Covey.
18. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
19. “Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things”. —Denis Diderot

The power of learning

20. “The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action”. —John Dewey
21. “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”—Albert Einstein
22. “We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us”. —Marcel Proust
23. “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” — William Pollard
24. “The only source of knowledge is experience.”—Albert Einstein
25. “We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves.”—Stephen Downes
26. “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” — Abigail Adams.
27. “Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward”. —Oscar Wilde

The need to bring change and innovate

28. “Vision without execution is hallucination.”— Thomas Edison
29. “Information is abundant; it’s common. What’s uncommon, and desperately needed in today’s education systems, is the innovator’s mindset.” — George Couros
30. “Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” —Confucius
31. “What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.” — Walter Pater
32. “Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?” — Jimmy Johnson.
33. “The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” —Thomas Henry Huxley.

Teacher inspiration

34. “A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.” —Brad Henry
35. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”— Henry Adams
36. “Effective teachers are not just “gifted educators.” They work hard to plan meaningful lessons. They work hard to connect with their students and inspire them. Their level of commitment always matters. — Danny Steele
37. “Inspiration does not need to be a fleeting feeling. I think an inspired teacher is a teacher who comes to work every day mindful of their true purpose. And that ultimate purpose is not found in their lesson; it is found in the students they are teaching.” — Danny Steele
38. A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil to learn is hammering on a cold iron. — Horace Mann
39. “The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.”—Alexandra K. Trenfor

 

Creating engaging lessons

40. “Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together.”— Scott Hayden
41. “A good teacher, like a good entertainer, first must hold his audience’s attention. Then he can teach his lesson.” — Hendrik John Clarke
42. “I learned that when I made people laugh, they liked me. This is a lesson I’ll never forget.” — Art Buchwald.
43. “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” — Plato
44. “Instead of wondering if someone is smart, they wonder in what way that person is smart.” — Liz Wiseman et al.
45. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”—Hans Hofmann
46. “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 Angelo
47. “Provide an uncommon experience for your students and they will reward you with an uncommon effort and attitude.” — Dave Burgess.

Technology integration

48. “Learners are the driver, and technology is the accelerator.” – George Couros
49. “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important.” – Bill Gates
50. “The strength of technology is the ability for teachers to differentiate instruction.” – Tom Lindly
51. “Technology will never replace great teachers, but in the hands of great teachers, it’s transformational.” – George Couros
52. “Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event.” – Heidi-Hayes Jacobs
53. If we marry educational technology with quality, enriching content, that’s a circle of win”. – Levar Burton

Leadership

54. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. —Warren Bennis
55. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. — Peter Drucker
56. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”— Lao Tzu
57. “A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others.” — Douglas MacArthur
58. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity”. — General George Patton
59. “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand”. — General Colin Powell
60. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader”. —John Quincy Adams

These were some great inspirational quotes for teachers. What other inspirational quotes for teachers would you add to the above list?