Educators have one of the most important but difficult jobs in the world. Although many have tried to describe the effect of teachers in teacher appreciation quotes, there are just no words to adequately describe the many hats they wear. By the time Teacher Appreciation Month rolls around, they’ve earned that summer break! Check out our list of teacher appreciation quotes to remember why you should make your teacher feel super special! If you want to say thank you, consider writing a note of gratitude and including one of these teacher appreciation quotes (a gift card or another small gift never hurts, either!).
Say Thank You With Our Favorite Teacher Appreciation Quotes
One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world. —Malala Yousafzai
A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils. —Ever Garrison
A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning. —Brad Henry
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. —Henry Brooks Adams
Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers. —Josef Albers
I am indebted to my father for living but to my teacher for living well. —Alexander the Great
A good teacher is like a candle: It consumes itself to light the way for others. —Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
A good teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. —Thomas Carruthers
The great teacher is not the man who supplies the most facts, but the one in whose presence we become different people. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace. —Confucius
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. —Albert Einstein
Genius without education is like silver in the mine. —Benjamin Franklin
A mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. —Oliver Wendell Holmes
Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system. —Sidney Hook
Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher. —Japanese proverb
One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. —Carl Jung
Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon. —Ann Lieberman
Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. —John C. Maxwell
Be a wonderful role model because you will be the window through which many children will see their future. —Thomas McKinnon
What we learn with pleasure we never forget. —Alfred Mercier
One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child. —Maria Montessori
Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me. —Fred Rogers
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
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
Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best. —Bob Talbert
What a gift for any teacher to see the students smile and live up to their potential. That’s the reward. That’s humbling to be a witness to something like that. —Mary Vallelonga
I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession. —John Wooden
Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire. —William Butler Yeats
If you can read this, thank a teacher. —American Proverb
When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts. —Dalai Lama
It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference. —Tom Brokaw
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. —William Arthur Ward
They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. —Carl W. Buechner
Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them. —Lady Bird Johnson
What the teacher is is more important than what he teaches. —Karl Menninger
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate “apparently ordinary” people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners, it is in making winners out of ordinary people. —K. Patricia Cross
Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime. —Chinese proverb
Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of the individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honor for me. —APJ Abdul Kalam
Nine-tenths of education is encouragement. —Anatole France
Being able to help someone learn something is a talent. —Margaret Riel
Summer vacation is the time when parents realize teachers are grossly underpaid. —Unknown
Teaching is not just a job. It is a human service, and it must be thought of as a mission. —Dr. Ralph Tyler
Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach. —Aristotle
To teach is to learn twice. —Joseph Joubert
What greater or better gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth? —Marcus T. Cicero
When we strive to become better teachers than we are, everyone in our classroom becomes better too. —Robert John Meehan
Teacher appreciation makes the world of education go around. —Helen Peters
He who opens a school door closes a prison. —Victor Hugo
I can’t believe I just saw my teacher at the grocery store! I thought she lived in her classroom! —Heidi McDonald
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. —Khalil Gibran
Educators are the only people who lose sleep over other people’s kids. —Nicholas A. Ferroni
Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. —Jacques Barzun
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre. —Gail Godwin
My teacher thought I was smarter than I was—so I was. —6-year-old child
If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes. —Guy Kawasaki
In order to be an effective teacher you have to love your students as human beings and you have to love teaching. —Maribeth Sublette
Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students. —Solomon Ortiz
One good teacher in a lifetime may sometimes change a delinquent into a solid citizen. —Philip Wylie
When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son. —The Talmud
Teachers teach because they care. Teaching young people is what they do best. It requires long hours, patience, and care. —Horace Mann
A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, and touches a heart. —Unknown
Not all superheroes wear capes—some have teaching degrees. —Unknown
It takes a big heart to help shape little minds. —Unknown
I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment. —James Levine
Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students. —Charles Kuralt
Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions. —Unknown
If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow. —John Dewy
Your heart is slightly bigger than the average human heart, but that’s because you’re a teacher. —Aaron Bacall
What a teacher writes on the blackboard of life can never be erased. —Unknown
Teaching: the only profession where you steal things from home and bring them to work. —Unknown
Cheers to all of the teachers who give out pencils every single day knowing that they’ll never get them back. —Unknown
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. —Mark Van Doren
Don’t judge a teacher until you’ve walked a mile in her shoes. —Unknown
I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. —Lily Tomlin
A teacher’s job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded. —Darwin D. Martin
The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. —Unknown
Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding. —William Arthur Ward
Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and the love of bringing the first two loves together. —Scott Hayden
The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see. —Alexandra K. Trenfor
It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom. —Michael Morpurgo
Teachers appreciate being appreciated, for teacher appreciation is their highest award. —William Prince
Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges. —Joyce Meyer
The teacher … must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work. —Maria Montessori
To this end, the greatest asset of a school is the personality of the teacher. —John Strachan
In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn. —Phil Collins
The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike. —H. L. Mencken
Without teachers, life would have no class. —Unknown
Good teachers are the ones who can challenge young minds without losing their own. —Unknown
A truly amazing teacher is hard to find, difficult to part with, and impossible to forget. —Unknown
The duties of a teacher are neither few nor small, but they elevate the mind and give energy to the character. —Dorothea Dix
A teacher nourishes the soul of a child for a lifetime. —Unknown
A truly special teacher is very wise and sees tomorrow in every child’s eyes. —Unknown
Teaching is the greatest act of optimism. —Colleen Wilcox
The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called “truth.” —Dan Rather
What are your favorite teacher appreciation quotes? Share them in our WeAreTeachers Helpline group on Facebook.
Plus, if you liked these teacher appreciation quotes, check out these team-building quotes for classrooms and schools.
