Whether your child’s school is opening up again this fall for in-person learning or they’ve decided to stay closed and are hosting class virtually, the start of the 2020-2021 back-to-school season is here.
So get your no. 2 pencil ready because this big list of the best inspirational back-to-school quotes and first day of school quotes is just what you need to get you or your child into the back-to-school spirit.
From funny back-to-school quotes that’ll get your kid laughing to new school year sayings about what’s to come, this big list of 100 school quotes—including back-to-school quotes for teachers—will get you ready to welcome the start of this new academic year with open arms, no matter what the year has in store.
Funny Back-to-School Quotes
1. “Respect your parents. They passed school without Google.” – Anonymous
2. “Education can get you the only thing that really matters in today’s world—an assigned parking space.” — Gene Perret
3. “School is a building which has four walls with tomorrow inside.” – Lon Watters
4. “If you think your teachers are tough, wait ‘til you get a boss.” — Bill Gates
5. “There’s more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney
6. “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” — Edmund Burke
7. “School bells are ringing loud and clear; vacation’s over, school is here.” — Winifred C. Marshal
8. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss
9. “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.” — Lily Tomlin
10. “A sense of curiosity is nature’s original school of education.” — Smiley Blanton
11. “First day of school, make sure that you know your locker combination.” — Jordan Francis
12. “School is the easiest job you’ll ever have.” — Marty Klazmer
13. “School is a lot like toilet paper. You only miss it when it’s gone.” — Anonymous
14. “There is nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school.” — George Bernard Shaw
15. “It’s not that I hate school. I just hate waking up early in the morning.” — Unknown
16. “We all learn by experience but some of us have to go to summer school.” — Peter De Vries
17.”High school looks so much cooler on TV.” — Unknown
18. “You can drag my body to school but my spirit refuses to go.” — Bill Watterson
19. “I said school starts tomorrow. I didn’t say I was going to be there.” — Kim Harrison
20. “I would enjoy school more if I was allowed to bring a pillow.” — Unknown
Back-to-School Quotes for Teachers
21. “The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.” — Joseph Campbell
22. “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai
23. “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” — Oprah Winfrey
24. “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
25. “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
26. “Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” — Roger Lewin
27. “Intelligence plus character—that is the true goal of education.” — Martin Luther King
28. “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” — G.K. Chesterton
29. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” — Henry B. Adams
30. “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.” — Chinese proverb
31. “Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them.” – Russell M. Nelson
32. “All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think.” — Ken Robinson
33. “Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.” — Chinese proverb
34. “Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” — Lady Bird Johnson
35. “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
36. “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” — Josef Albers
37. “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.” — Solomon Ortiz
38. “To raise a child who is comfortable enough to leave you means you’ve done your job. They are not ours to keep, but to teach how to soar on their own.” — Unknown
39. “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” — Japanese Proverb
40. “The future of the world is in my classroom today.” — Ivan Welton Fitzwater
Inspirational Back-to-School Quotes
41. “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” — Brian Herbert
42. “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
43. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of becoming.” — Goethe
44. “You learn something everyday if you pay attention.” — Ray LeBlond
45. “Now when you get there, act like somebody.” — Unknown
46. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”— Arthur Ashe
47. “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
48. “The highest result of education is tolerance.” — Hellen Keller
49. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein
50. “There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” — Mahatma Gandhi
51. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
52. “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” — Aristotle
53. “We don’t stop going to school when we graduate.” – Carol Burnett
54. “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” — Confucius
55. “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” – Kofi Annan
56. “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
57. “We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience, 95% of what we teach others.” — William Glasser
58. “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
59. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle
60. “I came to understand the value of education, not just to enable me to make a good living, but to enable me to make a worthwhile life.” – Ruth Simmons
First Day of School Quotes
61. “First day of school! Wake up! Come on. First day of school.” — Finding Nemo
62. “Everything you do–good or ‘bad’–affects everyone else in the room. That means everything you do matters because you matter.” — Unknown
63. “What I remember most about high school are the memories I created with my friends.” — J. J. Watt
64. “What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship.” — Terry Williams
65. “Be kind and make friends.” — Unknown
66. “One day middle school will end and become high school and after that it just becomes life. All those things you think are important now won’t be anymore.” – Diary of a Wimpy Kid
67. “The road to —here and everywhere on earth—begins in the classroom.” – Hubert Humphrey
68. “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” — Will Durant
69. “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
70. “Every day is the first day of school.” — Dr. Edoardo Zeloni Magelli
71. “On the first day of a college you will worry about how will you do inside the college and at the last day of a college you will wonder what will you do outside the college.” — Amit Kalantri
72. “You’re off to great places. Today is your day!” — Dr. Seuss
73. “On the first day of school, you got to be real careful where you sit. You walk into the classroom and just plunk your stuff down on any old desk, and the next thing you know the teacher is saying, ‘I hope you all like where you’re sitting, because these are your permanent seats.” — Jeff Kinney
74. “Be curious, not cool.” — Ken Burns
75. “It’s good to learn. Nobody can ever take that away from you.” — Estelle Okeon
76. “You are capable of anything.” — Unknown
77. “Everything is a learning process: any time you fall over, it’s just teaching you to stand up the next time.” — Joel Edgerton
78. “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” — Plato
79. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” – Larry Bird
80. “Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” — Alan Cohen
New School Year Quotes
81. “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” — Taylor Swift
82. “A new school year means new beginnings, new adventures, new friendships, and new challenges. The slate is clean and anything can happen.” — Denise Witmer
83. “The most important day of a person’s education is the first day of school, not Graduation Day.” – Harry Wong
84. “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.” — David M. Burns
85. “What we learn with pleasure we never forget.” — Alfred Mercier
86. “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
87. “Education is the key to opportunity.” – Gordon B. Hinckley
88. “Struggling is a part of learning. If it’s simple or simply done, you’re probably not learning anything.” — Unknown
89. “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” – Sydney J. Harris
90. “You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” – Les Brown
91. “Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” — Ralph Marston
92. “Time to rise. Time for school! Open your eyes.” — Tammie Jones
93. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
94. “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
95. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
96. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions.” — Unknown
97. “What we learn becomes a part of who we are.” — Kathy R. Jeffords
98. “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan
99. “A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.” — Helen Keller
100. “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” — Conan O’Brien
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