Quotes About Teachers

The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.  ~ Elbert Hubbard


The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.  ~ William Arthur Ward


To teach is to learn twice.  ~ Joseph Joubert


Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Everything I learn about teaching I learn from bad students.  ~ John Holt


The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men.  ~ Charles H. Fowler


Teaching is the royal road to learning.  ~ Jessamyn West


The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.  ~ Elbert Hubbard


The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.  ~ C.S. Lewis


Experience teaches slowly and at the cost of mistakes.  ~ James A. Froude


The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.  ~ Mark Van Doren


Education is teaching our children to desire the right things.  ~ Plato


Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.  ~ Aristotle


If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.  ~ Tryon Edwards


If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.  ~ Margaret Fuller


Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.  ~ John F. Kennedy


You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


I am not a teacher, I am an awakener.  ~ Robert Frost


The teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where only one grew before.  ~ Elbert Hubbard


I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.  ~ Lily Tomlin


We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives.  ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.  ~ Thomas Carruthers


Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.  ~ Colleen Wilcox



I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.  ~ Stanley Kubrick


There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.  ~ Robert Frost


It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.  ~ Albert Einstein


Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.  ~ Aristotle


Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.  ~ Chinese Proverb


A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.  ~ Horace Mann


Mistakes are often the best teachers.  ~ James A. Froude


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


When you learn, teach, when you get, give.  ~ Maya Angelou


Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more.  ~ Bob Talbert


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