Back to School Quotes to Inspire Students and Teachers

As we say goodbye to beach days and heatwaves, we welcome falling leaves and the back to school season.

To help you transition, we have compiled these inspirational back to school quotes. 

What’s your favorite memory of the back to school season? 

My favorite part of the back to school season was always buying new school supplies.

As a lifelong writer, I always enjoyed opening new notebooks, pens, pencils, and crayons.

Throughout the year, my supplies would either become lost or dirtied up from use.

Having new supplies helped me get inspired before the start of the school year and past the necessary evil of having to get up early. 

For students and teachers alike, we have brought together quotes on learning, books, and so much more.

Grab your No. 2 pencils and get in the school spirit by reading the quotes below!

Don’t forget to also check out these education quotes on the importance of learning.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

Motivational back to school quotes

1. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited.” – Plutarch

You will also enjoy our article on Motivational quotes for students.

2. “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.” – Martin H. Fischer

You will also enjoy our article on Teacher’s Day quotes.

3. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey

4. “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” – Conan O’ Brien

5. “No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.” – Regina Brett

6. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden

Back to school quotes about learning

7. “Everything is a learning process: Any time you fall over, it’s just teaching you to stand up the next time.” – Joel Edgerton

8. “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle

9. “You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

10. “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” – Socrates

11. “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

12. “Even the genius asks questions.” – Tupac Shakur

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Tupac quotes on life, love, and being real.

13. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

14. “None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard

15. “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

16. “Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

17. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford

18. “That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.” – Doris Lessing

19. “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” – B.B. King

If you’re enjoying this article, you might also like our collection of October quotes about its nature and beauty.

Back to school quotes about books

20. “Some books leave us free and some books make us free.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

21. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss

22. “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” – Francis Bacon

23. “My Alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” – Malcolm X

24. “Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.” – Samuel Johnson

25. “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” – Rene Descartes

26. “Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.” – Abraham Lincoln

27. “Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” – Henry David Thoreau

28. “Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.” – Oprah Winfrey

29. “It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.” – Victor Hugo

30. “Books are not men and yet they stay alive.” – Henry Ward Beecher

31. “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.” – Stephen King

If you’re enjoying this article, you might also like our collection of quotes for kids about school, life, and success.

Back to school quotes about new beginnings

32. “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.” – Buddha

33. “Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” – Ralph Blum

34. “The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world.” – Malcolm Gladwell

35. “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the water slide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute. – Tina Fey

36. “Every moment is a new beginning.” – Elie Wiesel

37. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

38. “Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” – Meister Eckhart

You might also like these graduation quotes on success, dreams and your future.

Back to school quotes for teachers

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

40. “I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession.” – John Wooden

41. “The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.” – Elbert Hubbard

42. “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” – Anatole France

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

44. “The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know.” – Simone Weil

45. “That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil’s means; great teachers foresee a pupil’s ends.” – Maria Callas

46. “Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help.” – Bodhidharma

47. “We expert teachers know that motivation and emotional impact are what matter.” – Donald Norman

48. “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society’s heroes.” – Guy Kawasaki

49. “A teacher is a person who never says anything once.” – Howard Nemerov

50. “A teacher must believe in the value and interest of his subject as a doctor believes in health.” – Gilbert Highet

Back to school quotes to make you excited

51. “You learn something every day if you pay attention.” –Ray LeBlond

52. “Sign on a high school bulletin board in Dallas: Free every Monday through Friday—knowledge. Bring your own containers.” –E.C. McKenzie

53. “I care not what subject is taught, if only it be taught well.” –T. H. Huxley

54. “The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” –Ralph W. Sockman

55. “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” –Winston Chuchill

56. “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” –Margaret Mead

57. “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.” –Masala Yousafzai

58. “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” –Taylor Swift

59. “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

60. “At school, nobody thought I was smart, and I became smart. Nobody wanted to be my friend, and then I had lots of friends.” — Rebel Wilson

What’s your favorite book?

The importance of reading can’t be overstated.

Like French philosopher Rene Descartes says above, “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

As you read, you gain insight into worlds, experiences, and times you wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.

When your teacher recommends a book, take the time to read it in full even if you wouldn’t have been interested in it otherwise.

Reading diversely (outside of your interests and preferences) can help you learn more about those different from you and expand your perspective. 

Which of these back to school quotes and sayings is your favorite?

Are you planning on sharing them with a friend?

Tell us your thoughts below!