Teacher quotes

Teacher

5.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

5.3K quotes
Terence McKenna
Terence McKenna Ethnobotanist, Philosopher, Writer

"Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed."

Malcolm X
Malcolm X Civil Rights Activist, Minister

"When you live in a poor neighborhood, you are living in an area where you have poor schools. When you have poor schools, you have poor teachers. When you have poor teachers, you get a poor education. When you get a poor education, you can only work in a poor-paying job. And that poor-paying job enables you to live again in a poor neighborhood. So, it's a very vicious cycle."

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud Neurologist, Psychoanalyst

"Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway his audience and dictate its decisions. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men's actions."

Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore Poet, Playwright, Novelist

"A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lesson to his students, can only load their minds, he cannot quicken them."

Quote collection

Teacher quotes (page 1 of 265)

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Malcolm X Civil Rights Activist, Minister
Teacher

"The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world."

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Aristotle Philosopher
Teacher

"Teenagers these days are out of control. They eat like pigs, they are disrespectful of adults, they interrupt and contradict their parents, and they terrorize their teachers."

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Albert Einstein Physicist
Teacher

"The most valuable thing a teacher can impart to children is not knowledge and understanding per se but a longing for knowledge and understanding, and an appreciation for intellectual values, whether they be artistic, scientific, or moral. It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing."

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Drake Rapper, singer, songwriter
Teacher

"Life is like a confused teacher...first she gives the test and then teaches the lesson"

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Teacher

"When your world falls apart and you're left with just yourself, you're forced to discover who you are without all the beliefs, expectations, views, & self-image provided by some teacher or system. The calculating mind gives way to the intuitive mind, Knowing without Thinking."

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Alfred Adler Psychologist
Teacher

"An educator's most important task, one might say his holy duty, is to see to it that no child is discouraged at school, and that a child who enters school already discouraged regains his self-confidence through his school and his teacher. This goes hand in hand with the vocation of the educator, for education is possible only with children who look hopefully and joyfully upon the future."

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Muhammad Iqbal Poet, Philosopher
Teacher

"Look at the evils of the world around you and protect yourself from them. Our teachers give all the wrong messages to our youth, since they take away the natural flare from the soul. Take it from me that all knowledge is useless until it is connected with your life, because the purpose of knowledge is nothing but to show you the splendors of yourself!"

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Bell Hooks Author, Feminist, Social Activist
Teacher

"My hope emerges from those places of struggle where I witness individuals positively transforming their lives and the world around them. Educating is a vocation rooted in hopefulness. As teachers we believe that learning is possible, that nothing can keep an open mind from seeking after knowledge and finding a way to know."

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Jean Piaget Psychologist, Philosopher
Teacher

"What is desired is that the teacher ceased being a lecturer, satisfied with transmitting ready-made solutions. His role should rather be that of a mentor stimulating initiative and research."

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Kevin Gates Rapper, singer, songwriter
Teacher

"My grandmother was an English teacher for a while. And she stressed to me the importance of reading, being able to articulate well."

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Albert Einstein Physicist
Teacher

"School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn't worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave."

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