With summer winding down, many kids and educators are preparing to return to school in August or September. The first morning of kindergarten, the last first day of high school, or off to college is almost always fraught with nervous excitement. Fortunately, students can calm their nerves with these inspirational back-to-school quotes. And, there are also quotes to inspire and motivate teachers as well.
Additionally, parents, students, and educators can print these quotes out and place them on their bulletin boards or academic calendars to keep them inspired throughout the year.
So, without further ado, here are 101 back-to-school quotes to kick off the year on a positive note.
1. “School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside.” — Lon Watters
2. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
3. “Education is a right, not a privilege; it is an opportunity, not an entitlement.” — Arne Duncan
4. “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” — Anthony J. D’Angelo
5. “Education is the passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
6. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” — Albert Einstein
7. “There’s more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney
8. “The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. “ — Ralph W. Sockman
9. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” — Abraham Lincoln
10. “Education doesn’t just make us smarter. It makes us whole.” — Dr. Jill Biden
11. “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai
12. “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle
13. “I am not a teacher but an awakener.” — Robert Frost
14. “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.” — Martin H. Fischer
15. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” — Andy McIntyre
16. “I’ve always loved the first day of school better than the last day of school. Firsts are best because they are beginnings.” — Jenny Han
17. “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” — Oprah Winfrey
18. “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” — Oscar Wilde
19. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss
20. “Learn as much as you can while you are young, since life becomes too busy later.” — Dana Stewart Scott
21. “The highest result of education is tolerance.” — Helen Keller
22. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” — Pelé
23. “With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time learning what it’s like to live in someone else’s shoes.” — John Irving
24. “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” — Taylor Swift
25. “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” — Lily Tomlin
26. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler
27. “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” — Maya Angelou
28. “The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.” — James Baldwin
29. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
30. “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” — Ben Franklin
31. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” — Angela Duckworth
32. “First day of school! Wake up! Come on. First day of school.” — Finding Nemo
33. “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” — Malcolm S. Forbes
34. “You learn something new every day if you pay attention.” — Ray LaBlond
35. “First day of school, make sure that you know your locker combination.” — Jordan Francis
36. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
37. “Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen.” — Conan O’Brien
38. “School is the easiest job you’ll ever have.” — Marty Klazmer
39. “Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so. After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do.” — Margaret Laurence
40. “A sense of curiosity is nature’s original school of education.” — Smiley Blanton
41. “If you think your teachers are tough, wait ‘til you get a boss.” — Bill Gates
42. “Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes
43. “I’m not going to school just for the academics. I wanted to share ideas, to be around people who are passionate about learning.” — Emma Watson
44. “School is a lot like toilet paper. You only miss it when it’s gone.” — Anonymous
45. “I care not what subject is taught, if only it be taught well.” — T. H. Huxley
46. “If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
47. “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” — Kofi Annan
48. “Don’t be afraid to start over. It’s a new chance to rebuild what you want.” — Anonymous
49. “The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.” — Joseph Campbell
50. “The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” — Tom Bodett
51. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi
52. “When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.” — Dalai Lama
53. “Don’t try so hard to fit in, and certainly don’t try so hard to be different…just try hard to be you.” — Zendaya
54. “The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.” — Bill Beattie
55. “If the school sends out children with a desire for knowledge and some idea of how to acquire and use it, it will have done its work.” — Richard Livingstone
56. “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
57. “Dreams come a size too big so that we can grow into them.” — Josie Bissett
58. “The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.” — Marvin Phillips
59. “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
60. “Some students drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.” — E.C. McKenzie
61. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey
62. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” — Anonymous
63. “A new school year means new beginnings, new adventures, new friendships, and new challenges. The slate is clear and anything can happen.” — Denise Witmer
64. “In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity, it is a prerequisite.” — Barrack Obama
65. “Be curious, not cool.” — Ken Burns
66. Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them. — Russell M. Nelson
67. “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.” — Zig Ziglar
68. “Every day is the first day of school.” — Dr. Edoardo Zeloni Magelli
69. “Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life.” — Confucius
70. “You can’t do it alone. Be open to collaboration. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you. Spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler
71. “It is not what is poured into the student but what is planted that counts.” — E.P. Bertin
72. “The road to —here and everywhere on earth—begins in the classroom.” — Hubert Humphrey
73. “School bells are ringing loud and clear; vacation’s over, school is here.” — Winifred C. Marshall
74. “The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not Graduation Day.”– Harry Wong
75. “Everything you do–good or ‘bad’–affects everyone else in the room. That means everything you do matters because you matter.” — Anonymous
76. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
77. “Soon the days of swimming and playing in the sun will be a memory, but don’t worry. The new school year will bring a chance to meet new friends!” — Anonymous
78. “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.” — Solomon Ortiz
79. “What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship.” — Terry Tempest Williams
80. “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” — Josef Albers
81. “It’s one of my favorite seasons of the year: Back to School. As a kid, I loved fresh school supplies, new outfits, the change of seasons, and the chance to crack open a new textbook.” — Dana Perino
82. “You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that’s the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.” — Michelle Obama
83. “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan
84. “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
85. “What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.” — Chuck Grassley
86. “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” — William Arthur Ward
87. “All students can learn and succeed, but not in the same way and not in the same day.” — William G. Spady
88. “The greatest gift we can give our children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” — Maria Montesorri
89. “All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think.” — Ken Robinson
90. “In many ways, September feels like the busiest time of the year: The kids go back to school, work piles up after the summer’s dog days, and Thanksgiving is suddenly upon us.” — Brene Brown
91. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” — Steve Martin
92. “Change is the end result of all true learning.” — Lou Buscaglia
93. “Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.” — Daniel J. Boorstin
94. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
95. “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” — G.K. Chesterton
96. “Sometimes you have to do what you don’t love, so that you can do what you love.” — Anonymous
97. “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” — Brian Herbert
98. “Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” — Claus Moser
99. “Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” — Roger Lewin
100. “The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.” — Anonymous
101. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker
Image Credit: Yan Krukov; Pexels; Thank you!
Deanna Ritchie
Editor-in-Chief at Calendar. Former Editor-in-Chief and writer at Startup Grind. Freelance editor at Entrepreneur.com. Deanna loves to help build startups, and guide them to discover the business value of their online content and social media marketing.