101 Inspiring Back-to-School Quotes 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,...

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!

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